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EY.THE PEOPLE'S CP 



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THE CONGRATULATIONS Of THE COUNTRY, 

THE CALXS OF DELEGATIONS AT CANTON, 

THE AL DRESSES BY THE' 



HIS ELOQUENT AND EFFECTIVE RESPON! 



FULL TEXT OF EACH SPEECH OR ADDRESS MADE 
FROM JUNE 18 TO AUGUST 1, 1896 



COMPILED FOR THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CO/IMITTEE 
By JOSEPH P. SMITH. 



The Repository Press. Canton, O. 
1896. 



GIFT 

HP FLticFr;^ 




"1R2 2J960 



i 



McKINLEY AS A CANDIDATE. 



THE JOLLIFICATION AT CANTON. 

THE nomination of William McKinley as the "Republican candidate for 
President has been ratified more generally and enthusiastically by all 
classes of his fellow citizens, the country over, than perhaps that of any 
other candidate of his or any party in our history. On the afternoon and 
evening of Thursday, June 18th, the day on vphich he was nominated. Canton, 
Ohio, his home, was alive with delighted people. It had been arranged that 
the citizens of Canton should assemble in the Public Square, immediately on 
receipt of the news from St. Louis, form a brigade, and march to the McKinley 
residence, on North Market Street. But the people took the matter into their 
own hands ; regardless of plans or programmes in the exuberance of their joy 
they rushed ^M «2a5s^ and pell mell to the Major's home, from every direction 
and street and square in the city. The decisive ballot at St. Louis was not yet 
finished before they had assembled by thousands, blocked North Market 
Street, crowded upon the lawn and surrounded his residence, and were 
surging through it, with every possible manifestation of satisfaction and 
dt Jioht. Even before the arrival of the brigade from the Square, not a quarter 
of a mile distant, Major McKinley was obliged to come out and acknowledge 
the deafening calls of his neighbors and friends. When the column from 
down town had forced its way up the ci-owded street, he was again compelled 
to appear, and Hon. F. E. Case, a prominent manufacturer, made the following 
address : 

"Major McKinley: Your neighbors and townsmen wish to be the first to 
congratulate you upon your nomination to the highebt office within the gift of 
the people of the United States. None know better than these neighbors here 
assembled how well this honor is merited. They were the first to witness the 
beginning of your public cai-eer. They saw you quit your academic studies, 
with the ardor of youth, and a bravery bt-yond your years, to de\ote your 
services to your imperilled country. The courage and ability you then 
displayed, a promise of what followed in later years, won for jou that rank 
and title by which we have so long and familiarly addressed you. A few of 
your veteran comrades have again formed in line, and, joining the citizens of 
Canton, take this opportunity to make pronounced their high regard for you. 
The ability and fidelity with which you have discharged great public trusts, 
and the recognition by your countrymen of long and useful service to the 
State and Nation, are exceedingly gratifying lo your Canton and Stark County 
friends. We welcome you as neighbors, without distinction of party, bearing 
in mind, that, while you have acted in a broader field, you have not lost sight 
of the duties and obligations of the citizen, and that with your many cares and 
responsibilities you have ahvays found time and opportunity to lend your 
valued assistance to all that makes for good in our community. We unite in 
extending to you our hearty congratulations and good wishes." 



Major McKinley's Response. 

Mounting a chair on his doorstep, Major McKinley faced the thousands ot 
his expectant and joyous fellow citizens, and when the storm of applause had 
sufficiently subsided to make himself heard, he spoke as follows: 

"My Friends and Fellow Citizens : I am greatly honored by this demon- 
stration. Its non-partisan character forbids political discussion, and I appear 
only to make grateful acknowledgment for your address and congratulations. 
I am |not indifferent to the pleasure which you exhibit at the news just 
received from the Republican National Convention. For days your interest 
has been centered upon St. Louis, and your presence in such vast numbers here 
this afternoon testifies your personal good will to myself and family, as well as 
your gratification with the work there done. Your cordial assurances are the 
more highly appreciated by me because they come from my fellow citizens — 
men of every party, my old army comrades, my neighbors and former constit- 
uents—with whom I have lived almost a life time, and who have honored me 
over and over again with important public trusts. Your warm words of 
greeting are heartily reciprocated and will be cherished forever. Many of 
those around me have not always agreed with me touching political questions ; 
but it is pleasant, as I look into your faces, to recall that in all the years of 
the past there has never been a moment when you have withheld from me 
your friendship, encouragement and confidence. You have always been as 
generous as loyal, and my heart is full of gratitude to all of you. 

"There is nothing, it seems to me, more gratifying, or more honorable, to 
any man, than to have the regard of his fellow townsmen, and in this I feel 
that I am and have always been peculiarly blessed. Never were neighbors 
more devoted or unfaltering in their support to any one than you have been to 
me. You have made my cause your cause, and my home among you has been 
in consequence one of constant and ever increasing pleasure. This county and 
city are very near and dear to me ; here I have spent my life since early 
manhood, so that I have been identified with this magnificent county for now 
nearly a third of a century. I have followed its growth with the fondest pride 
and noted with peculiar satisfaction that it has kept pace with the most 
advanced and prosperous communities. I am especially glad to greet you here 
at the house where our married life began, and our children were born — and in 
this feeling I know Mrs. McKinley heartily joins ; our greatest joys and 
deepest sorrows are ineffaceably connected with this home and city. You have 
never failed to greet me with your best wishes and congratulations upon every 
occasion of my nomination or election to a public office, commencing twenty 
-'ears ago, when I was first named by my party for Congress. I can not under- 
take to estimate the value of these many friendly demonstrations, so encourag- 
ing, so helpful, so inspiring — far beyond what you could have anticipated 
Dr believed at the time. Your call to-day, though not entirely unexpected, is 
most highly appreciated, and I thank you from the heart for what you have 
said, as expressive of the feelings of yourself, sir, and those for whom you 
speak. This latest evidence of your esteem makes me more indebted to you 
than ever and the happy memory of your kindness and confidence will abide^ 
with me forever." 



ALLIANCE SECOND TO GREET Hin. 



In forty-five minutes from the time Major McKinley's nomination was 
assured by the deciding vote of the Ohio delegation in the St. Louis Conven- 
tion, two thousand citizens of Alliance and Eastern Stark County, coming 
twenty miles by special train on the Pittsburg, Fort "Wayne and Chicago Rail- 
road, stood at his door in Canton, and ofTored their heartiest congratulations, 
through lion. S. J. Y^illiajis, State Senator from this district. The run had 
been made from Alliance in twenty minutes and ten full companies of citizens 
and students from Mt. Union College were in line. Major McKixley spoke 
briefly in reply to the address of Mr. "Williams, thanking the people for their 
personal good will, but making no reference to politics. 



HASSILLON AND AKRON. 

The crowd had begun to disperse, but its attention was re-arrested by the 
arrival of a monscer deIeg2ition from Massillon and "Western Stark County, 
which came by special train on the Interurban Electric Railway. Nineteen 
cars were jammed with people, hundreds of whom were employes of Russell & 
Co's great machine shops. Dozens could not get into the cars but clung to the 
sides and tops of the coaches, despite danger and inconvenience. They reached 
Canton at 7:15 and marched at once to Major McKixley's residence, where Mr. 
E. A. Jones, of Cleveland, formerly Superintendent of the Massillon Public 
Schools, made a speech of congratulation, "both on what he had done, and 
what was deservedly in store for him, as the faithful friend and servant of the 
people " To this Major McKixley' responded that he was "deeply grateful 
for their words of encouragement and cheer, and that he was always glad to 
hear from and meet the laboring men of Massillon, and all his friends in that 
city. I remember well," said he, "that when I was given my first public trust 
(his nomination for Prosecuting Attorney) twenty-seven years ago, the 
suggestion first came from "Western Stark County, and I am proud of the 
fact that since then you have given me your loyal and unswerving support 
through the whole of my public career . I bid you all welcome, and good night." 

By this time the Akron delegation was beginning to arrive. It reached 
Canton at»7 :40, via the Cleveland, Terminal and Valley Railroad, in four 
special trains often coaches each. Fully four thousand men were in line, and 
the scenes as they marched through the streets to the music of bands, and on 
their arrival at the Mc Kixley residence, were those of indescribable enthusiasm. 
Capt. PaulE. "\YERXEn, a prominent German publisher of Akron and Chief 
Marshal of the evening, spoke for the visitors from Summit County. He said: 

"Major McKinley: These men come from the city of Akron. Among 
them are hundreds of personal friends whom you have known for ma/iy years. 
We consider you as one of our number. "When your nomination was announced 
in our city it required but an hour's notice for them to congregate at the 
railroad station ; they left their workshops, their homes, their stores, their 
offices, to hasten to congratulate you. I introduce, fellow-townsmen. Major 
William McKinley, the nominee of the Republican National Convention, and 
our next President of the United States." (Wild cheering and applause.) 



Major McKinley's Response. 

The demonstration continued for several minutes, but when quiet was 
somewhat restored, Major McKinley spoke as follows : 

"Capt. Werner and My Fellow Citizens: The crowd is so great that I 
fear I will not be able to make myself heard. I only appear that I may thank 
you for your gracious words and sentiments, as representing the citizens of 
Akron and Summit County. We are not strangers, but neighbors for many, 
many years past. More than once Summit County was part of the Congres- 
sional district I had the honor to represent. I remember twelve years ago, that 
I opened the campaign in Copley ; I recollect, too, that in 1893, 1 opened the cam- 
paign in the State of Ohio, as the Republican candidate for Governor, in the city 
of Akron, and I cannot but believe that it is a good omen to have Akron and 
Summit County with us in any cause. I welcome you here to-night, ard beg 
to express my warm appreciation of your coming thus early to tender me 
your congratulations. In this great audience are some of my old constituents 
of the 18th Ohio District — the first district that I had the honor to represent 
in Congress. Little Carroll, too, which I see is represented here, never failed 
to roll up a splendid majority for me, no matter what other counties might do 
for the Republican party and its cause. Indeed, this seems to be aspotaneous 
reunion of my old Congressional district, and I bid you hearty welcome to my 
home. You have long had my heart, and I thank you, and bid you good 
night." 



CARROLLTON, OSNABURQ, MINERVA AND NILES 



Meanwhile five coaches of passengers had arrived from Carrollton, 
Osnaburg, Minerva, and vicinity, after forty miles ride on a special train via 
the Cleveland, Canton and Southern Railroad. It had left Carrollton, the county 
?eat of Carroll County, at 6:40 Thursday evening, and reached Canton two 
hours later. About six hundred men were in line un^.or command of C.ipt. W, 
F. Butler, recently sheriff of Carroll County. They marched at once to the 
McKinley residence, where they were greeted pleasantly by Major and Mrs. 
McKinley, whence they soon joined the rejoicing thousands who were marching 
about the city in groups and companies, singing and shouting as they went. 
The booming of artillery, the clanging of bells, andtheshriekingof whistles had 
gradually given way to the more melodious but no less boisterous shouts and 
songs of the multitude. 

A hundred citizens of Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, the birthplace of 
Major McKinley, sixty miles away, arrived by special train at ten o'clock, 
Thursday night, and called to tender him their fervent congratulations. The 
Major thanked the visitors and shook hands with all of them, as he had so 
many thousands of others during the course of the afternoon and evening. He 
was late in retiring, but hundreds of the happy throng continued to jollify all 
nightlong. It is safe to say that he spoke to or greeted personally more 
than 50,000 people, between nve o'clock and midnight. Never had Canton 
known so great a day in all her history. 



CANTON REPUBLICANS AT HOME AGAIN. 

The announcement of the expected return of Canton's contingent at St. 
Louis, Friday afternoon, July 19th, was the signal for a renewal of the demon- 
strations which had commenced Thursday evening and continued throughout 
the night. The newly organized escort of the First Ward Republican Club wai? 
first on the street, and the horsemen made a splendid appearance heading the 
parades. With this addition the evening was almost a duplicate of Thursday 
night. "Here they come; there is Canton !"— and the cheers which had been 
held in reserve for the Canton people all afternoon broke forth in mighty- 
volume as the long column appeared in view. In a short time swarmb o? 
men and women filled every available inch of ground in the McKinley yard 
Following closely upon the Canton people were delegations from Youngs- 
town and Warren, in which were about five hundred people, and these com- 
mingled with the immense throng. It had been arranged that Major 
McKiNLEY should address these delegations from the front veranda, but h»» 
went to the north side of his house to better accommodate the combined dele- 
gations. The Warren contingent, with many from ^iies and Poland, were 
headed by the Warren band. The visiting delegations represented the 
industrial interests of the Mahoning Valley, and visited Canton for the sole 
purpose cf congratulating Major McKinley and assuring him that their untir- 
ing labors were pledged to a victorious result at the polls next iSi^ovember. 
There was a large representation of the Giddings Eepublican Club of Warren, 
and of the Republican Central Committee of Trumbull County. 

Miijor McKixley's appearance with Hon. William R. Day, Judge Georgb 
E. Baldwin, and Congressman Eobekt W. Tayler was the signal for an out- 
burst of cheers from thousands of throats that rivaled those of the previous 
evening. After quiet had been obtained, Mr. C. A. Yates, of Massillon, 
mounted the improvised platform and in a short address, presented Hon. 
Robert W. Tayler, of Lisbon, Columbiana County, Major McKinlev's 
successor in the lower house of Congress, who said: "While we have not the 
good fortune to be first to congratulate you on the honor the RepubJicaR 
party has bestowed upon you, we rejoice to know we are the vanguard 
of the returning host that witnessed the splendid demonstration whereby you 
were nominated for President. The recollection of that scene will never 
be effaced from our minds There we saw the Republican party place you 
in nomination, and while it honored you it honored itself, and gave per- 
manency to the wish that has been in the hearts of the American people 
for many months. This delegation left Canton with rising hopes that have 
been amply fulfilled. You are not only loved at home, but wherever the 
American fiag floats. Twenty years ago Stark County gave you to Congress, 
four years ago she gave you to the State, and now she gives you to the Nation 
which has been your constant care. We know that the constancy, honor and 
patriotism which have distinguished you to this hour will characterize you 
evermore. You are first in the hearts of your countrymen, not because you 
are a Presidential nominee, but because as that nominee you so conspicuously 
represent the great principle whose triumph is their chief concern as well 
as yours. That you may receive every blessing that a life well spent can bring, 
ia the wish of those about me. 



Following Congressmen Tayler, Mr. Yates presented Judge George E. 
Baldwin, who spoke in behalf of Stark County. He said: 

•'Major McKinley: Language fails me as I attempt to convey to you the 
congratulations of those of your neighbors and friends who for over twenty 
years have watched with interest your wonderful progress. On last Saturday 
about three hundred of your neighbors and friends concluded they would go 
to St. Louis, and they took with them their bag and baggage, determined to 
remain there until you were nominated ; and of the wonderful influence they 
had in bringingaboutthisgreatresult modesty forbids me to speak, (Laughter 
and applause.) If you could have seen the great throngs of people that assem- 
bled at the Union Depot in St, Louis on Sunday afternoon and have heard 
their expressions, and could have seen the McKinley badges upon the coats of 
four-fifths of the great crowd that gathered you would then have had an idea 
of the intense interest the masses of the people have in you and in the 
welfare of this country. On the day that the Convention assembled, if you 
eould have seen the thousands upon thousands of intelligent faces looking 
toward the Great Convention that was to meet that day, anxious and eager that 
some measure should be adopted and the man nominated that they believed 
■was most certain to bring back prosperity to them, you would have been 
inspired by the interest and great efforts of your party to bring about 
those grand results, which, 1 am pleased to say, were fully accomplished. 
I remember when you first came into public life ; many of us here were 
present when you were nominated for Prosecuting Attorney, and well, 
faithfully, boldly and honestly did you discharge your duties. By more than 
twenty years of faithful, honest and able service you have endeared yourself to 
all good people, not only of this vicinity, but the country at large. During 
the time of your service in Congrep? prosperity perched upon the banners of 
our people; the wheels of industry revolved, and the whistles of the 
workshop told of the happy condition of the American laborer, whose toil was 
everywhere sought and always remunerated by a good day's wages. But the 
Democratic party was allowed to come into power . Then the scene changed — 
the wheels of industry ceased to revolve, the hum of the spindle died out, the 
whistle of the factory was soon silenced. The people began to ask that party 
to fulfill its promises; they called aloud for work — even for bread, but the 
echo was the only answer to their wailing cry. Then they looked again to the 
Republican party and to the man who had always championed and so bravely 
battled for protec-tion, to bring back those industries and that prosperity. 
They tur/ied their faces to you, sir, the great people of this Nation arose in 
their might and demanded you for their standard bearer. (Tremendous 
cheering.) The Convention at St. Louis listened to their cry; they felt that 
this is the year of the people — the people had spoken and the great party of 
the people was bound to obey their behests. They yesterday placed you in 
nomination as the leader of the greatest party of the greatest nation upon the 
face of the earth. Already we have some evidences of returning prosperity ; 
(cheers) the rising sun of prosperity has already thrown upon the lattice window 
of hope his early smile and the wage earners begin to rejoice at the 
prospect. As soon as this can be fully realized, they will flock to your 
support, and when the old party is in power again, it will come to stay. 
(Loud cheers.) They have selected you as their standard bearer, and regard- 
less of party, faith or creed, they will rally and elect you as President of the 
United States. (Vociferous cheering.) No man has ever stood as near the 
hearts of the people, since the days of the matchless and immortal Lincoln, as 

8 



you. We confide the care, the custody and the keephvg of the industries 
of the people of this country and their prosperity to you. \Ve believe you will 
be elected by the greatest majority any President ever received, (continued 
cheering), and that you will faithfully, honestly and ably conduct the affairs of 
this great and glorious isation until prosperity shall perch on its banners 
ever more." (Loud and continuous applause. ) 

The appearance of Judge William li. Day, of Canton, as he stepped upon 

the platform, was the signal for another burst of cheers. His remarks were 

most appropriate, eloquent and tender, and greatly affected all hi? hearers, 

^especially his esteemed friend, Major McKinlev, who was moved to tears by 

them. He said: 

"Major McKiNLEY : I speak to you, not as the Governor of Ohio, or the 
President of the United States — that surely you sha'l be — but 1 claim the 
^reat privilege on behalf of these, your old friends, of still addressing you as 
'neighbor.' For we have not forgotten that in all these years of success, and 
"while your fame has spread to the uttermost corners of the civilized world, a,nd 
you now 'stand on fortune's crowning slope,' to us you have always been the 
companion, the counselor, the guide, and familiar friend. Greater tribute 
than this can no man bring. Those who knovr you best, love you most. To-day 
we had a very pleasant surprise in a gift of these flowers from ?ome ladies of 
llichmond to your most gracious and noble wife. (Cheers.) I am proud, sir,, 
that this representative lady, when she brought them in, said 'Governor 
!McKiNLEY is in the heart of every good mother and every good wife in all this- 
broad land (continued applause), and we send these flowers to his noble wife 
as some slight expression of our appreciation of him and good Vv'ill to her. 
These flowers are typical of the purity of his life and character, as unsullied as 
his honor, and as fragrant as his good nafne ' Major McKinley accei>t these 
flowers for Mrs. McKinley, from the ladies of Richmond, Ind , with their best 
wishes for her health and prosperity, and your continued success." (Applause.) 



Major McKinley's Response. 

Major McKinley was escorted to the stand amid deafening cheers, and 
gave evidence of great emotion when he spoke, as follows : 

"My' Fellow Citizens: How can I make fitting response to the splendid 
tributes which have been paid me by my earliest friends ? I think I 
might be excused by merely saying that I am inadequate to the task, and can 
only express ray gratitude by the silence due to a full and overflowing heart. 
I have experienced many touching incidents in my life. Yesterday immediately 
after the nomination I was surrounded by my neighbors and fellow citizens of 
Canton, who did not go to St. Louis, and by friends from Alliance and Massillon, 
and then came 4,000 more from Akron last night. With all these tokens, I was 
deeply and profoundly impressed, but somehow the words spoken by these 
gentlemen, and surrounded as I am by their associates who journeyed with 
them to St. Louis— somehow they have touched me more deeply, sounded the 
depths of my heart more surely, than anything that has gone before. In this 
audience I see representatives from all of the counties which constitute the 
Congressional district with which I have been associated all my life. A large 
number of my fellow citizens are here from Trumbull County, the place of 
my birth. (Great applause.) A large number are here from Mahoning County 
(cheers from Mahoning citizens), the place where I spent my boyhood, the 

9 



rounty where I received my education, and from which I enlisted in the war for 
the preservation of the Union, away back in 1861. (Loud and continuous 
cheering.) And then around me are the later friends, for from Mahoning 
County I came to Stark, nearly thirty years ago . You have all been my friends 
ever since; I am proud to include among my immediate friends not only the 
good people of Stark, Mahoning and Trumbull, but all the grand old Western 
Reserve, which was so long represented in the National Congress by Giddings 
and Wade, and the gifted and immortal Garfield. (Applause.) And now, my 
friends and fellow citizens, I know that you will excuse me— I want only to 
add, in terms of sincere affection, that I thank each and every one of you from 
my heart for these manifestations of your friendship, devotion and loyalty^ 
and as you seem to have brought back what you went for, those whom you left 
behind want me to say that they are glad to see you home again." 

GREET[NG5 FROfl THE EMPIRE STATE. 

The McKinley League of the State of New York arrived from St. Loui&- 
via the Pennsylvania lines, at Coshocton, Ohio, on Friday, JunelDlh, and came 
to Canton that evening on a special train over the C , C. and S. R. R. They 
chose Hon. John E. Miliiolland, of the New York Tribune, as spokesman and 
marched at once to the McKinley residence, where Mr. Milholland climbed 
on a chair and presented to Major McKinley the friends before him. Hon. 
Warner Miller, of Herkimer, was first introduced, and spoke as follows: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen: We thought it proper on our way home from 
the St. Louis Convention to call here and pay our respects to the man who had 
been honored by the Republican party, he who is your fellow townsman and 
neighbor. It has been my privilege to know Major McKinley for nearly 
twenty years and it affords me great pleasure to assure him on behalf of the 
Republicans of New York that we shall give to him and to the principles he 
represents, the largest majority in November that has ever been given to any 
Presidential candidate since the organization of the Government. (Loud 
cheers.) The Republicans of New York will be second to none in the whole 
country in their loyalty to the party, and in their efforts and labors for 
its success. We have but a moment to spend here and therefore I do not wish 
to take up your time in making a speech. I came here simply to take ^he " 
hand of Major McKinley and to assure him of the affection and love of the 
people ot New York. And now, gentleman ol the McKinley League of the 
Empire State, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you Major 
WiLLiAM McKinley, the next President of the United States." (Applause.) 

riajor HcKinley's Response. 

When comparative silence had been restored, Major McKinley said: 

"My Fellow Citizens OF New York: It gives me very great pleasure tcv 
meet and greet you here at my home to-day. It was most gracious on your 
part to pause in your journey to the East long enough to give me the pleasure 
of meeting you face to face ; and nothing could have been more agree- 
able to me than to be presented to the members of the McKinley League of 
the State of New York, by my old friend, long a member of the House of Rep- 

10 



resentatives, and Senator at Washington — Hon. "Waener Miller. (Long ap- 
plause. ) I am always glad to meet and greet him. All we have to do this year, my 
fellow citizens, is to keep close to the people. (Loud cheering.) To hearken 
to the voice of the people and have faith in the people, and if we do that the 
people will win for us a triumph for the great principles which in all the years 
of the past have given us plenty and prosperity " (Great cheering.) 

When the 3Ia]or stopped speaking, Mr. Milhoix.vxd again mounted a chair 
and introduced Hon. Geokge E. Matthews, of Buffalo, President of the 
New York McKinley League. Mr. Matthews' voice was exceedingly hoarse ; 
l;e explained the circumstance by saying that it had become so by shouting 
for McKixLEY, and assured the Major that his voice would be restored in 
time to make speeches in h is behalf and shout again when the victory was won 
next November. At the conclusion of the speeches, Mr. Milhollaxd exhibited 
the famous "Ferris AVheel Petition," which consisted of five and three- fourth 
miles of paper, and contained the signatures of 247, CCO people of the State of 
New York asking for the nomination of AViLLi.-\>r McKixley for President. Mrs 
McKixLEY and Mother McKixley joined the Major and an impromptu reception 
was held at the front door of the residence, during which many of the New 
Yorkers were received by the family. A pleasing incident of this reception 
was the presentation of a handsome badge to Mrs. jaIcKixley, on behalf of the 
women of New York, who extended their heartfelt congratulations. Mrs. 
McKixley received the souvenir with a smile and graceful bow, expressive 
alike of her own pleasure and the thanks of herself and family. 



A DELEGATION OF COLORED CALLERS 

In company with the New York Republican !.!.eague, which called upon 
Major McKixley, June 19th, wasadelegationrepresenting theColoredEepubli- 
can League of New York State. They were cordially received by him, and a 
congratulatory address in writing was presenftd by Rev Dr. Ernest Lyon, 
Pastor of St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church, of New York City, and 
President of the Preachers' Alliance. In behalf of the colored Republicans, Dr. 
Lyon said : 

*'To the Hon. William McKixley*: We are here as a body of colored 
American citizens, representing various organizations in the Empire State. 
We have come with our fellow citizens to congratulate you on your nomination 
as the standard bearer of the grand old Republican party, and to assui-e you 
that we shall return to our respective homes to labor zealously for the success 
of the ticket nominated by the representatives of the people in convention 
assembled at St. Louis." 

Signed on behalf of the Ministerial Alliance, Ernest Lyon, ( D. D. ) President ; 
Alfred C. Cowan, President Colored Republican Association of New York ; 
Edward E. Lee, Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms at the Republican Convention, 
St. Louis, J. 11. SiMMS, Editor and Publisher of the New York Central Echo, 
and President of the Henry Highland Garrett Republican Club, New York 
City; A.M. Thomas, attorney-at-law, Buffalo, N. Y. ; Samuel Morgan, Presi- 
dent Colored Republican County Club of New York City ; Alfred J. Scott, of 
the Eleventh Assembly District, and J. A. Smith, of the Twenty-fifth Assem- 
bly District 



11 



MORE NEW YORK flEN. 

The visit to Major MoKinley of the New York State McKinley League on 
Frldiiy evening, was followed Saturday morning, June 20th, by that of another 
distinguished party from the metropolis, en route home from St. Louis, at 8:12 
o'clock, via the Ft. "Wayne railroad. The party was composed of the following 
gentlemen: Hon. Corxelu'S N. Bliss, President American Protective Tariff 
League; General Hokace Porter, President Union League, New York City; 
General Anson G. McCook, Chamberlain, New York City ;■ General Charles 
H. T. CoLLLS, Commissioner of Public Works; Colonel S. V. R. Cruger, Pres- 
ident of the Park Commission ; Frank D. Pavey, ex-State Senator; Eichard J. 
Lewis, and Robert Miller, ex-members of the New York Assembly; Hon. 
William Brookfield and Andrew Jacobs, members New York State Com- 
mittee; and Messrs. Henry C. Robinson, William S. Bragg, Thomas F. 
Eagan, Benjamin Oppenheimer, AVilliam Henckel, John G, Graham, Andrew 
P. Dedi, Thomas Humphery, J. E. McMillen, Montague Leslie, J. F. Mc- 
GowAN and Lloyd Collis. Hon. James R. Garfield, of Mentor, the Republican 
leader of the Ohio State Senate, also accompanied the party. They were 
cordially received by Major and Mrs. McKinley, and a number of the party 
called on jMother McKinley at her home on West Tuscarawas street, before the 
departure of their train at 1 :21 that afternoon. 



GREETINGS FROn THE TIN WORKERS OF NILE5. 

Saturday, June 20th, was a day of tin buckets, banners, canes, whistles 
and horns — and speeches. The operatives of the tin plate industries of Niles, 
Ohio, paid their respects to the statesman whom they pronounce their greatest 
fripud and champion. The vis#ors were decorated with the badges of the Niles 
McKinley League and tin souvenirs ; they carried tin canes, with medalions 
of ]\[cKiNLEY as heads. The party was composed cliiefly of the operatives of the 
Falcon Tin Plate Factory, wliich has been in operation ever since the enact- 
ment of the McKinley Law gave proper protection to this industry. They bore 
two large streamers, or sheets of tin, like banners, nearly al long as the line of 
paraders, on one of which was the inscription, "From Niles to the White House," 
and on the other, "Who Made the Niles Tin Mill? The McKinley Bill, Of 
•Course." All along the line of march the cheering by both paraders and 
spectators was most vociferous. The Niles men have a yell which is peculiar to 
themselves. It is, 'Rah, Rah, Right." "AVho's all right?" "McKinley's all 
right." "Where was he born? N-I-L-E-S" ! This was repeated frequently. 
Apt, as it may seem, Niles, the birthplace of Major McKinley, is the location of 
large tin plate industries. Mr. Joseph Smith, chairman of the meeting, pre- 
sented Col. William H. Smiley, as Major McKinley appeared on the veranda of 
his residence, who said : 

"Major McKinley:' I have the pleasure of introducing to you some 
hundreds of the citizens of your native town of Niles. Among them is a 
very large number of the employes of our town. We realize that what we 
Jiave been, what w^e are, and what we hope to be, is largely due to 
that wliich is now called Protection, but that sometimes has been called 
^McKinleyism.' (Cheers.) We realize not only what yoYi have done 
for us^ but wJiat it lias cost you to do it. We know what it must have cost a 

12 



man in the Fifty-first Congress, which gave us our tin mill. (Loud an 6 
vociferous cheering.) We know that you would have sacrificed every interest 
and given your life to your country, and to us, and if there is anything we can 
do for you we want to do it. In 1891 the candidate for Governor who opposed 
you, stood on the platform of a car in our town and said to the citizens of 
Niles: 'No man will ever live to see tin made in Niles,' (at this moment a 
tremendous rattling of the tin banners carried by the Niles delegation was 
heard) but that is only one of the many mistakes our adversaries have made. 
Every Republican President, and every man who has led the Republican party to 
victory since the days of Lincoln, was (perhaps, strangely enough,) born in 
Ohio. Major McKinley will be tlie fifth and when there will add to the glory 
of being born in Ohio — and especially of having been born in Niles. (Loud 
cheering.) What can the Nation do except to do as that Convention did, and 
elect him unanimously ? Gentlemen, I now introduce you to Major McKinley." 
(Three rousing cheers were given him.) 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

The Major stepped upon a chair and bowed his acknowledgements for 
the great applause that greeted him. He recognized among the hundreds of the 
citizens of his birthplace, and the thousands of others crowding into the yai-d, 
the face of an old friend of his boyhood days, and did not forget it. He said: 

"Mr. Smiley, and My Fellow Citizens : I am very glad indeed to meet 
so many citizens of my native town. I do not find many of the faces that I 
used to know in my boyhood in this audience, buti think I have beer aole to see 
one that I remember to have seen in the village of Niles when I was a boy, and 
that is Henry Mason's. I recollect him as the merchant of the town, and as I 
look into his face to-day, I remember that he was kind to every boy — and I like 
a man who is kind to boys — (loud cheering) — and am especially pleased to meet 
him here again, after a lapse of forty years, in my home at Canton. I am glad 
to meet and greet so many of the workingmen of the thriving little city of 
Niles. I am glad to have demonstrated in my native town that we can make 
tin plate in tlie UnitedStates,andinreply to what your spokesman has been kind 
enough to say of my efforts in that connection, I answer that if I have been 
associated with any legislation that has given to a single American working- 
man a day's work at American wages which he did not receive before, that is 
honor enough for me. (Loud and continuous applause.) What we want in this 
country is a policy that will give to every American workingman full work at 
American wages. A policy that will put enough money into the Treasury of 
the United States to run the Government. A policy that will bring back to us 
such a period of prosperity and of plenty as that we enjoyed for more than 
thirty years prior to 1893. I am glad to welcome you all to }ny home ; it is 
especially pleasant to have the men from my boyhood town and the place of my 
birth gather around me as they have to-day, and I reciprocate most warmly 
all the kind sentiments tliat have been so generously spoken in your behalf by 
your Chairman. I wish for old Niles prosperity in every workshop and factory, 
and in every home, love, contentment and happiness. I thank you, and bid you 
good afternoon." (Three prolonged cheers for Major McKinley were again 
given.) 



IS 



WORKINQHEN FROM WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA, 

A delegation of workingmen from Wheejing, West Virginia, took up the 
celebration, Satui-day afternoon, June 20th, where the Niles tin workers left 
off, and right royally did they sajute Major McKinley. Fully fifteen hundred 
enthusiastic, shouting Wheeling workingmen appeared at Major McKixley's 
home shortly after five o'clock. The party came in two delegations, the first 
being about six hundred workingmen employed at the La Belle Iron, Steel and 
Tin Works. The second and larger section an'ived about an hour later. In 
the La Belle delegation were many tin badges and banners, on which were the 
woitls "1896. La Belle Iron, Steel and Tin Works." One of these banners was 
presented to Major McKinley by the workingmen, and when he appeared on his 
doorstep three hearty cheers -were given for him. Hon. William C. Curtis, a 
member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, stepped forward and 
congratulated Major McKinley, as follows: 

"Mr. President: If there has ever been a nominee of any political party 
in the history of this country that had a cinch upon that title, you are certainly 
the man, and as Mr. President I hail you in advance. I have the honor and 
the pleasure of introducing to you this delegation of iron, steel and tin plate 
workers of the La Belle ^Nlills of Wheeling, AV. Va. (Cheers.) In this delega- 
tion we have the president of the mill, the directors, the managers and the 
workingmen. (Applause.) We have come, irrespective of party affiliation, 
to do honor to the man by whose instrumentality it was made possi- 
ble fox that mill to manufacture tin- plate. Under the bright influence 
of that law over $100,000 has been expended on the mill, giving it a capacity to 
turn out thirty tons of tin plate per day. (Loud applause.) Notwithstanding 
the fact that the enemies of protection told us that we could not manufacture 
tin plate in this country, yet within four years' time nearly two hundred tin^ 
mills have been established with a capital of .|9,000,C00, employing 12,000 hands,' 
and paying them as wages $8,000,000 per year. Permit me, in conclusion, to 
])resent you with this banner made of McKinley tin at the La Belle Mills, and 
I want to say that I am instructed to pledge to you the enthusiastic support of 
this delegation from now until the sun sets on the evening of November third, 
next." (Loud applause.) 



Major McKinley's Response. 



. When the cheering had subsided, Major McKinley replied : 
"Mr. Curtis and AVokkingmen of Wheeling: I beg to thank this 
great assembly for the generous message of good will and congratu- 
lations which you have brought me from the Little Mountain State, 
There is no tribute greater, there is no tribute that should be dearer to any 
man, than to have it said, as you have been kind enough to say to me, that he 
had contributed in the smallest degree to the establishment of an industry 
new in the United States, which gave additional employment to American 
labor and brought greater comfort to American homes. I shall long cherish, my 
fellov.- citizens, these kindly words, and this demonstration v.hich comes from 
the workingmen of AVheeling, irrespective of party. I can not misunderstand 
— nobody can misunderstand — the meaning of these demonstrations on the 
part of the workingmen. Those who have come here this afternoon, and those 

14 



who were here this morning, have mside their purpose plain and distinct. 
They mean just one thing; and tliat is: That in the mind of every American 
workingman is the tliought that this gieat American doctrine of protection is 
associated witli wages and Avork, and linked with home, family, country, and 
prosperity. That, my fellow citizens, is what all these great manifestations 
signify. They mean tliat the people of this country want an industrial policy 
that is for America and Americans. (Loud and continuous applause.) They 
mean tluit they intend to return to that policy which lies at the foundation 
of our National prosperity, wliich is the safest prop to the National Treasiu*y, 
and the bulwark of our industrial independence and financial honor. I thank 
you, workingmen of "Wlieeling, for tliis friendly call. I thank you heartily for 
the kind words you have spoken ; I wisli you all a safe return home, and I wish 
for you, and my countrymen everywliere, a speedy return to the happier and 
better days we used to have." (Great clieering.) 

Three-quartei's of an hour after the LaBelle delegation had arrived, the 
second section reached the McKinley residence. It was composed of citizens 
of Wheeling and members of the Oliio County Republican Club, who created 
gi'eat enthusiasm by their fine appearance. Capt. B. B. Dovener, Member of 
Congi'ess from the Wheeling district, spoke for the visitors as follows: 

"Major MoKixLEY : I liave an honor that I appreciate as the spokesman of 
a Club that represents true Republicanism in our State, a Republican- 
ism that has come up through gieat tribulation to fight the battles of freedom 
and the principles of the Republican party. To-day is the anniversary of the 
birtii of West Virginia. I made your acquaintance amid the mountains of our 
State when we were struggling for the second baptism of liberty and independ- 
ence in this country. Since that time, thirty-three years ag6, we have placed 
the star representing our State in the firmament of the Union, as bright, we 
believe, ac "■^y that decorates the blue field of our country. These people here 
are mountaineers of West Virginia, whose Republicanism is as grand as their 
hills. We bring to you on behalf of the loyal Republicans of our State, from 
tlie mountains and the valleys, a glad greeting of congratulation, and know 
that we shall see you elected President of the United States of America." 
(Loud cheers.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Capt. DovENEK AND My Fellow Citizens op Wheeling: I have been visit- 
ing Wheeling for a good many years, and I am glad to have you at last retiu-n 
my frequent calls. (Laughter and applause.) Upon every occasion that I 
have visited your city and State it was to carry the banner of the Republican 
party and speak for its immortal principles. I remember having gone 
through the State in 1894, when the Little Mountain State was transferred 
from the ranks of our opponents to the columns of tlie Republican party. 
(Applause.) I have not seen you since, and therefore take this occasion to 
congi-atulate you upon that splendid victory. You put four Republican 
Representatives in tlie National House at Washington, and sent that states- 
man, Stephen B. Elkins, to the Senate (loud cheers) and thus added five more 
votes to the Republican strength in the great parliamentary bodies of the 
country. Am I not right in saying, my fellow citizens, that you have come to 
stay with us? (Loud cries of *Yes.') That's what you did two years ago, and 
you mean to keep on doing so, I confidently believe, until the gi-eat Republican 

15 



party shall be brought back into power in every branch of the Federal Govern 
ment, and until we have returned to that glorious prosperity from which we 
ran away about four years ago. (Laughter and applause.) I recall with 
feelings of emotion the reference made by your Congressman, and my friend, 
Captain Dovener, to our first meeting over in the Kanawha Valley. We were 
then in the midst of war ; the Southern States, or some of them, were in active 
rebellion against the Federal Union. Thirty-three years have gone by; the « 

war is long since over, and its glories now belong to the vanquished as well \ 

as victors. Tlie settlement sealed at Appomattox is the common heritage of 
all Americans, aM to-day we only know the North and South as geographical 
divisions. We are all one in devotion to the Union and the flag, and one in 
striving to make the Nation more glorious than ever before. ( Cheers. ) I 
thank you for this call and will be glad to take by the hand each and every one 
of you. (Applause.) 

When Major McKinley concluded one of the members of the delegation 
presented a huge bouquet of roses to Mrs. McKinley from the Ohio County Ee- 
publican Club of Wheeling. He accepted the gift in behalf of Mrs. McKin- 
ley, with a bow of thanks. The entire delegation then filed past and shook 
hands with much pleasure and hilarity on part of the enthusiastic Virginia- 
Republicans. 

ZANESVILLE SEND5 A LARGE DELEGATION, 

The demonstrations in honor of Major McKinley were resumed Monday 
afternoon, June 22nd, and by evening were in full force and as joyous as ever. 
An immense delegation from Zanesville and Dresden arrived over the C, C. and 
S. Railway at seven o'clock, falling ten coaches. They proceeded at once to 
Major McKinley's residence; here Hon. Henry C. Van Vorhis, Member of 
Congress from the Zanesville district, spoke for the visitors, as follows: 

"Major McKinley: The people of Muskingum County, the Boys in Blue, 
the Foraker Club, the McKinley Club, the Young Men's McKinley Club and 
the Dresden Republican Club are here to congratulate you and the country 
upon your nomination for the highest office within the gift of the American 
people. We congratulate you and rejoice with the people of this Nation upon 
your nomination, because we are assured that it will bring to and end great 
commercial and industrial depression, and insure protection to our industries, 
and maintain the honor of our Government. I have the honor, fellow citizens, 
and it is a great pleasure as well, to introduce to you, the visiting delegations 
from Muskingum County — Major William McKinley, the next President of 
the United States." (Long continued applause.) 



riajor McKinley's Response. 

When the applause had subsided. Major McKinley said : 
"Mr. Van Vorhis and My Fellow Citizens op Muskingum County: It 
appears to me that I have heard tliose voices before. (A voice, ' That's right.' 
Laughter and applause.) I am very glad to meet my fellow citizens of Muskin- 
gum County. I have many times been greeted by great audiences in the city of 
Zanesville, but this is the first opportunity I have had to welcome you to my 
own home. I give you warm and cordial greeting. We have had some 

16 



experience in the last thi-ee years and a half. Experience has superceded 
prophecy, and cold facts take the place of prediction. We all know more than 
we knew then, and are ready and anxious to get back a period like that of 1892, 
when this country was enjoying its highest prosperity with the greatest domestic 
trade it ever had, and the largest foreign trade ever known with the nations of 
the world. (Applause.) "We want to get back the old policy, my fellow 
citizens, which will give to labor work and wages, and to agriculture a home 
market and the good foreign market which was opened up by the reciprocity 
legislation of the Republican party. "We have come to appreciate that protect- 
ive tariffs are better than idleness, and that wise tariff legislation is more 
business like than debts and deficiencies, and to feel that the sooner we change 
the policy which increases the debts of the Government to that of paying as we 
go, the sooner we will reach individual and National prosperity. And, my 
countrymen, there is another thing the people are determined upon, and that 
is that a full day's work must be paid in full dollars. (Cries of 'Good' and 
loud cheers.) I thank Congressman Van Vorhis, and through him all the Clubs 
of every name, for they are all Republicans this year, (Laughter and shouting), 
for this cordial visit and promise of support. I will be glad to meet each of 
you personally and grasp you by the hand." (Tremendous cheers.) 



THE CALL OF THE fllCHIQAN REPUBLICAN EDITORS, 

The Michigan Republican Editorial Association, comprising the editors 
and proprietors of the leading daily and weekly papers in that State, arrived in 
Canton on the 1:05 o'clock C, C. & S. train, Wednesday afternoon, June 24th. 
They came direct from Jackson, Michigan, where they were in session all day 
Tuesday. AVhile in convention assembled they adopted a resolution by a 
unanimous vote endorsing the Republican National platform and the 
nomination of William McKixley for President. It was then decided to 
take a trip to Canton and meet the Nation's choice for President, personally- 
They left Detroit at eleven o'clock by boat to Cleveland, thence to Canton in a 
special C.,C. and S. coach. The party included President F. R. Gilsox and 
wife, editor of the Benton Harbor Palladium ; Secretary W. R. Cook and wife, 
editor Hastings Banner; Treasurer Mrs. T. S. Applegate, editor of the Adrian 
Times and Expositor; L. A. Sherman and wife, of the Port Huron Times ; L. 
E. Slusser, Marcellus Herald ; E. B. Dana, Muskegon Chronicle ; W. E. Holt, 
Bellevue Gazette ; Don Henderson, Allegan Journal; C. C. Swenberg, Grand 
Rapids Herald; E. J. March, Hillsdale Leader; A. L. Bemis, Carson City 
Gazette; E. O. Dewey and wife, Owasso Times; C. L. Brecon, Grand 
Haven Daily News ; J. C. Jones and F. Ward, Hillsdale Standard ; C. S. Brown, 
Banner Publishing Co., Hastings; George Barnes, Livingston County 
Republican, Howell; J. H. Kidd and wife, Daily Sentinel, lona; JAjfES 
O'Donnell, editor of the Daily Citizen, Jackson; L. Merchant, of the 
St. Joseph Herald; AV. J. Hunsaker, manager of the Detroit Journal; 
E. L. Bates, Pentwater News; L. P. Bissell, Eaton Country Eepublioan ; 
Fred Slocum and wife, Tuscola County Advertiser, Cairo; C. J. ]\Iuore 
and wife, of the Battle Creek Daily Journal; B. J. Lowrey, editor 
Howard City Record ; L. M. Sellers, Cedar Springs Clipper; George E. Gil- 
liam, Hornsville Recoi-d ; George Dewey, Jr., Owosso Times; Roy Gilsox, 
Benton Harbor, H. G. Barnum and wife, and E. G. Spalding and wife, Porf 
Huron Publishing Co. ; C. A. Baxter, of Detroit, Member of the NationaJ 

17 



jnmniittee of the Republican League, and W. H. Sweet, of Ypsilanti. 
The visitors were conducted to the McKinley residence and personally 
received by INIajor and Mrs. McKikley. On behalf of the visitors, ex-Congress- 
uiuii O'DoxNEL introduced President Gilson, who said: 

"Major MoKixLEY : We have come to your home to add our voices to the great 
chprus of congratulations that come to you from all over the Nation. We 
come from Michigan, a State that has vast agi-icultural and commercial inter- 
ests, all to be benefitted through your influence — a State now solidly Repub- 
lican. We come from a profession which has done much in the past to educate 
the people along the line of material development, that is devoted to the 
American flag; the American farm, the American factory, and the American 
fireside. AVe owe much to you as business men and business women. The 
largest cities in our State are represented here — Deti-oit and Grand Rapids— 
as V, ell as a number of the larger towns. We came so soon after the nomina- 
tion ihat we had not time to gather in our hosts, so that our party is but a small 
part oi what it would otherwise have been." 

riajor HcKinley's Response. 

''Mr. GiLSoM AND LAliiE.^ Ast) &entlemex : 1 count it a very great honor, aS 
tvell as a very great pleasure, to receive this visit from the Republican editors 
of the State of Michigan, I have noted for many years the ability of the press 
of your State, I have noted that the Republican press of Michigan has never fal- 
tered in its loyalty to Republican principles, but under all circumstances has 
been faithful to the Republican cause. Nor Imve I permitted to pass unobserved 
tlie very friendly personal spirit which has been shown me "or long years by the 
Republican editors of your State; during the discussions preceding the 
Republican National Convention, your partiality was so strongly marked, and 
so generous, that I can not now forbear to thank you. When your groat State, 
through its representatives at St. Louis spoke, it spoke unitedly, showing that 
the Republican press and the people of Michigan this year were of one mind, 
"the power which you, ladies and gentlemen, exercise on the destinies of the 
■Country can not be over estimated. You not only register public opinion, 
but you have much to do with making and influencing public opinion, 
and in a government like ours, where public opinion lies at the foundation, 
and is supreme to government, the press is, indeed, mighty in its power. A 
partisan press, too, is indispensable in a government like ours. As long as 
we have parties we must have party newspapers, and it is very gratifying to 
me to know- that to-day the Republican party never had such strength and 
support as it is receiving from the press of the United States. Its aims, its 
purposes, and its principles are nearer and dearer to Republicans than 
ever before, and I believe that they are nearer and dearer to the great masses 
of our countrymen, considered independent of past party aflSliations, than they 
have ever been in the past, and that those principles never so well deserved 
the support of the press as now'. (Applause.) In this great National contest 
you will have very much to do with the result, and I am sure the editors of 
the State of Michigan, the Republican editors, can be counted upon to give 
to those great principles of our party that so closely affect the prosperity of 
the covuitry their best efforts this year, as they have ever done in the years of 
the past. It has given both Mrs. McKixley and myself genuine pleasure to 
kave you in our home. We bid you all welcome." (Applause.) 

18 



A UNIQUE AND ELEGANT HOflE RECEPTION. 

The women of Canton, prompted by their great esteem for Major and Mrs. 
McKiNLEY, gave them an unique and elegant reception at the Jacob Miller 
homestead, West Tuscarawas Street, on Friday afternoon, June 26th. It had 
long been unoccupied but the good women of Canton had most beautifully 
refurnished and decorated it, in honor of the occasion. Here gathered several 
thousands of the women of Canton and Stark County to testify their respect 
and reverence for Major and Mrs. McKixlky, and his venerable mother, Mrs. 
AViLLiAM McKixlky, Sr. They crowded the Miller liomestead, and the spacious 
grounds surrounding it; the reception began at 3:00 o'clock, and for the next 
two hours thousands of women paid their respects to their distinguished guests 
of honor. At the conclusion of the reception, Mrs. Alice D. Jones, of Canton, 
«poke for the assembled thousands: 

"Mother and Wife of Willia.m McKinley: You know the import of this 
meeting. We, the women of Canton and Stark County, would show honor to 
the two VFomen nearest and dearest to the man to whom not only Canton but 
the entire Nation is paying homage. He is bound to you by ties even closer 
than those which bind him to his country and we believe he will say with us 
that the better part of him is of your making. The path which we now see so 
plainly leading to the White House had its beginning within the doorway of 
tlie little frame house in Niles. There the wisdom of a father and tlie loving 
guidance of a mother, laid the foundation of the young boy's life, the 'justice, 
the sagacity, and the charity of which characterize the statesman of to- 
day. Ah, Mother, the little hands you guided then have been growing 
stronger as your own have grown more feeble ! Life's discipline of calm and 
storm has left its marks upon your boy's face, but the necessary lessons and 
songs are still remembered, and the touch of your aged hands upon them 
to-day is a motive power lor good, so pure, so limitless in its reach, that only 
balances unseen can estimate its worth. Mrs. McKinley, over twenty-five 
years ago you prophesied Canton's future pride in Canton's young attorney. 
You plighted to him your girlish faith and within the old Presbyterian church 
you linked your life with his. Canton has been proud of him for many years, 
and Canton has been proud of you. Governor McKinley's every act to-day 
bears upon it the stamp of his association with a refined, exalted womanhood. 
So purely womanly is you wifely devotion, so in sympathy with his every 
interest has your life always been, that were you not a part of it to-day we 
believe like Lafayette, he would exclaim, in the bitterness of his heart, "She 
was so one with me, that life seems robbed of half its power without her!" 
Proud as we are of our statesman, we boast in wife's and mother's part in giving 
to us one in whom we can all safely trust. Women such as you have given our 
Nation in the past her noblest bravest sons. John Quincy Adams owed his 
gi-eatness to his mother ; Washington consulted his mother ; Lucy Webb Hayes 
was her husband's truest helper ; Jackson deferred to the opinions of his idolized 
-wife ; and the name of Ida Saxton McKinley will ever be associated with 
the fame of her illustrious husband. Fourteen years ago on the Sunday 
following his nomination, James A. Garfield walked into the old home 
church, bearing on his arm his aged motlier, and on last Sabbath morning 
into the church of his early faith walked our future President, and with 
him walked his mother. AVith home anchorage such as this, we women 
have no fears that under the coming Admistration hearth-fires will bui-n 
dimmer or counting-rooms be closed. Men may deal with questions of tariff 

•19 



and finance and political policy ; we women believe the importance of pure 
living is higher than all and are satisfied that if you are called to preside over 
the destinies of the Nation, we shall have a man at the head with a character 
so pure and a record so untarnished that any mother here to-day would feel 
proud to know that the footsteps of their little boys were parallel with his. 
Major and Mrs. MoKinley, in giving you to the Nation, we do not feel 
that we are losing you. Too many ties, sacred and tender, will bring you 
back to Canton. There are pleasant friendships here, there are deeper loves, 
there are homes on Market and West Tuscarawas, and, out in Westlawn, there 
are tiny graves, and larger ones, which will ever make Canton a Mecca for your 
returning feet. In this your hour of triumph, and ours of pride, when to you 
and yours we extend the congratulations of your townswomen we can not 
refrain from paying tribute to one, who, bearing also the name of McKinley, 
will be remembered in Canton as long as those who came in contact with her 
have the powers of memory. Anna McKinley possessed that latent power, 
that force of character, that winning charm and gracious tact, which made her 
queenly among women, and which, had she been a man, would have made her 
second, not even to her honored brother, William McKinley. No richer 
benison can we ask for you, than where, with wider reach, perchance than hers, 
your hands may guide and govern." (Applause.) 

riajor flcKinley's Response. 

Fully 6,000 of the women of Canton and Stark County took part in this 
memorable reception. Major McKinley thanked the great assemblage for the 
honor done his wife and mother, but did not continue his remarks beyond 
a brief acknowledgment. He said : 

"Mrs. Jones and Women of Canton: I am sure that both my wife and 
mother would have me express their warm appreciation of the gracious words 
you have spoken, and I assure you that no honor can ever come to me that I 
will esteem more highly than this loving tribute that you have paid ta those 
who are so near and dear to me. In a single word I wish to add that I feel 
no higher commendation can be paid to any man than to have the approval of 
the good women, mothers, wives, sisters, friends, of the city in which he lives. 
It will give my wife and mother both the greatest pleasure to meet you all 
. personally. Again, I thank you." (Applause.) 



NORWALK AND HURON COUNTY. 

The Young Men's Republican Club, the Huron County Republican Com- 
mittee and other citizens of Norwalk, Ohio, arrived in Canton at seven o'clock 
Friday evening, June 26th, to extend their congratulations and proffer their 
support to Major McKinley. The delegation came via the Wheeling and Lake 
Erie Railroad to Massillon and thence to Canton on the Interurban Electric 
Railway, a journey of about one hundred miles. It was headed by the A. B. 
Chase Band and accompanied by a Colored Glee Club. Judge Thomas called 
the visitors to order, and in a few remarks introduced Hon. Lewis C. Laylin, 
ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, who said: 

"Major McKinley: The Young Men's Republican Club of Norwalk, 
members of the Huron County Central Committee, and many others, ask 

20 



me to convey to you their congratulations upon jour nomination for 
President. Forty years ago, when the Republican party was organized, 
a majority of the voters of Huron County gave it their allegiance as the 
party of freedom, and from then until the present hour, not a single 
Democrat has been elected to a county office in old Huron. It is always ready 
with a Eepublican majority. In every campaign it contributes to the party's 
victories, victories which have given us such immortal statesmen as Lincoln, 
Grant, Hayes, Garfield and Harrison. When the Democratic party came 
into power three years ago, when the matchless tariff measure which bears 
your honored name was stricken from the statute books, our people, in common 
with many thousand more Eepublican s of this and othex* States, resolved 
upon your leadership in the contest of 1896. We are here at your home now to 
bring our hearty greetings and to congratulate the country on the dawn of the 
orighter day that will be ushered in by your election. Accept our greetings 
and the assurance of our abiding confidence in your great triumph in Novem- 
ber next." (Applause.) 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Speaker Laylin and My Fellow Citizens op Huron Cottnty: It gives 
me great pleasure to meet you, and I am grateful to your spokesman, who has 
been my friend for many years, for the generous words he has spoken, in the 
expression of your respect and good will. I recall that Huron County was 
one of the counties of this State that gave its support to John C. Fremont, our 
first candidate for President of the United States, and in all the eventful years 
that have followed has steadily kept the faith in every contest. This is 
creditable to both the patriotism and intelligence of her people, for no 
man anywhere throughout the country doubts where the Eepublican party 
stood in times past nor where it stands to-day. It stands for a re-united and 
prosperous country ; it stands for the American factory, the American farm, the 
American fireside, for American labor, American wages and American thrift 
throughout every part of our much loved land. It stands for a protective 
tariff which protects every American interest ; it stands for reciprocity that 
reciprocates — that gets something for what we give, from the nations of 
the world. It stands for the reciprocity of Blaine and of Harrison and the 
great Eepublican party. It stands now, as it has always stood, and always 
will stand, for sound money with which to measure the exchanges of the peo- 
ple, for a dollar that is not only good at home, but good in every market place 
of the world. It is with these principles emblazoned on its banners this year 
of 1896 that it appeals to the deliberate judgment of the American people. 
Lincoln used to say, "there is no better hope in tlie world than this," and 
to such a tribtmal we, therefore, feel that we can confidently submit our 
%im8 and purposes.** vttreat and long continued applause.) 



THE CANTON RATIFICATION AND PARADE. 

Canton was again the Mecca of thousands of people on Saturday, June 27th. 
The threaten in 2 weather did not prevent their coming to Major McKinley's 
luune city in assist the great crowd froin Cleveland in ratifying his nomi- 
'latiou. Tli<3 e^AercisiBS were under the auspices of the Tippecanoe Club, one of the 

21 • 



most famous Republican clubs in the country, but there were a score or more of 
other large delegations from as many towns within a radius of a hundred miles of 
Canton. Both at the speaking in the afternoon', at the corner of Third Street 
and Cleveland Avenue, where a crowd collected filling the entire open square, 
and as the immense parade passed the reviewing stand in front of Major 
McKixley's residence at night, the enthusiasm was unbounded. Judge 
William R. Day, of Canton, presided at the meeting in the park, and strong 
speeches were made by General Charles H. Grosvenor, of Athens, Ohio, 
Hon. Charles Emory Smith, the distinguished journalist of Philadelphia. 
Hon. James H. Hoyt, of Cleveland, Hon. Robert AV. Tayler, of Lisbon, and 
Mr. H. W. WoLCOTT, President of the Tippecanoe Club, of Cleveland. The great 
feature of the speaking exercises, however, was the ovation given to Major 
McKinley, as he came upon the rostrum to acknowledge the demonstrations 
in his honor. He spoke as follows: 



Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I thank you for this magnificent demonstration ; I 
think I know just what it means. It is in no sense personal — but it is the 
assurance of the interest which you feel in the great questions that are to be 
considered in this eventful campaign, and settled by the American people at 
the November election. It means, my fellow citizens, that you are attached 
by every tie of fealty and affection to the great fundamental doctrines of the 
Republican party. It means tliat you intend by your votes to write into 
public law, to place permanently upon our statute books, what you believe to be 
for the best interests of all the American people. (Loud and continuous ap- 
plause.) Republican principles do not perish. They have not suffered by 
defeat. They have not been dimmed by their temporary rejection by the people. 
They are brighter and more glorious to-day than ever before. (Cries of 'Good,' 
and 'That's right.') They are doubly dear to every American heart. (Loud 
applause. Their defeat before the American people has never brought good to 
any American interest, (A voice, 'Not one') but their triumph has always 
brought many and far-reaching advantages to the American people. (Applause.) 
My fellow citizens, tliese principles are to be tried before you this year— what 
will your answer be in November? (A voice, 'The election of McKinley!' 
tremendous cheering lasting several moments before the Major could resume his 
speech. ) AVliat are these principles, my fellow citizens? A protective tariff that 
takes care of every American interest, and serves the highest good of American 
labor (Great cheering.) A tariff that insists that our work shall be done at 
nome and not abroad. (Loud yelling and applause.) A reciprocity, that, while 
seeking out the world's markets for our surplus products, will never yield up a 
single day's work that belongs to the American workingman. (Vociferous 
cheering.) Honest money, a dollar as sound as the Government, and as untar- 
nished as its flag. (Loud cheers.) A dollar that is as good in the hands of the 
farmer and the workingman, as in the hands of the manufacturer or the 
capitalist. (Cheers.) These great principles emblazoned as they are upon the 
banners of the Republican party wiU insure a sweeping triumph — 
so that the third day of November next, will, as I firmly believe, bring 
sweet messages of promise and happiness to eveiy American home and 
fireside throughout this broad land. (Continuous cheers.) I thank you, my 
fellow citizens, for this manifestation of your good will. I am glad to 

22 



A'elconie you to this city — a city near and dear to me by every tie of affection- 
a.city to which I owe much. "We are all proud to have you here to-day, and 
my advice to the Mayor is to have the census taken at once." (Laughter and 
renewed applause." 

APOLLO (PENNSYLVANIA) REPUBLICAN CLUB. 

Just after the Ratification meeting on Market Square had closed, the mem- 
bers of the Apollo (Pennsylvania) Republican Club, who had arrived by a 
special train too late to hear the speeches there, called upon Major McKixley 
at his residence, and prevailed upon him to say "just a word" from the 
reviewing stand on his lawn. He said: 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"Gentlemen op the Apollo Republican Club : I assure you I very cordially 
appreciate the courtesy and compliment of this call ; I appreciate it the more 
because I know it means that you have traveled this long distance tliat you 
might give evidence of the interest you feel in the ques+'ons that are engag- 
ing public attention and which the people will determir ^ater on. I congratu- 
late youir busy little manufacturing city upon the rogresg and prosperity 
it Yn'i had, and I trust that in the future you will L^^ve still greater prosperity. 

Some one has said that 'we are a nation of working people, and born busy.' 
Well, we have been, and will be again; and that policy under which for more 
than tliirty years we enjoyed exceptional advantages and prosperity shall be 
again i-estored to this country. I thank you all for the compliment of this 
call and bid you good afternoon." (Tremendous applause and three cheers.) 

SENATOR THURSTON'S NOTIFICATION ADDRESS. 

On Monday, June 29th, the Presidential Notification Committee appointed 
by the St. Louis Convention called upon Major McKixlev, at his home ia 
Canton, to formally apprise him of his nomination as the Repubh"can candidate 
for President in 1896. Hon. John M. Thurston, of Nebraska, Permanent 
Chairman of the National Convention, spoke for the Committee. He said: 

"Major McKinley: We are here to perform the pleasant duty assigned 
us by the Republican National Convention, recently assembled in St. Louis, 
that of formally notifying you of your nomination as tlie candidate of the 
"Republican party for President of the United States. "We respectfully request 
your acceptance of this nomination and your approval of the declaration of 
principles adopted by the Convention. "We assure you that you are the 
unanimous choice of a united party, and that your candidacy will be immedf* 
ately accepted by the country as an absolute guaranty of Republican succeasl 
Your nomination has been made in obedience to a popular demand whose 
universality and spontaneity attest the affection and confidence of the plaia 
people of the United States. By common consent you are their champion. 
Their 'mighty uprising in your behalf emphasizes the sincerity of their con- 
version to the cardinal principles of Protection and Reciprocity as best 
exemplified in that splendid Congressional Act which justly bears your name. 
Under it this Nation advanced to the very culmination of a prosperity fat 

23 



surpassing that of all other peoples and all other times ; a prosperity shared in 
by all sectioiio. ^H interests and all classes ; by capital and labor; by producer 
and consumer; a prv.,_^ -ity so happily in harmony with the genius of popular 
government that its choicest blessings were most widely distributed among the 
lowliest toilers and humblest homes. In 1892, your countrymen, unmindful of 
your solemn warnings, returned that party to power which reiterated its ever- 
lasting opposition to a protective tariff and demanded the repeal of the 
McKinley Act. They sowed the wind. They reaped the whirlwind. The 
sijfferings and losses and disasters to the American people from four years of 
Itemocratic tariff, are vastly greater than those which'came to them from four 
years of civil war. Out of it all great good remains. Those who scorned your 
cwunsels speedily witnessed the fulfillment of your prophesies, and even as the 
scourged and repentant Israelites abjured their stupid idols and resumed, 
laoquestioning allegiance to Moses and Moses' God, so now your countrymen, 
shamed of their errors, turn to you and to those glorious principles for which 
you stand, in the full belief that your candidacy and the Eepublican platform 
mean that the end of the wilderness has come and the promised land of 
American prosperity is again to them an assured inheritance. But your nom- 
ination means more than the endorsement of a protective tariff, of reciprocity 
ef sound money and of honest finance, for all of which you have so steadfastly 
slood. It means an endorsement of your heroic youth; your faithful years of 
arduous public service ; your sterling patriotism ; your starlwart Americanism ; 
your Christian character, and the purity, fidelity and simplicity of your private 
Me. In all these things you are the typical American ; for all these things you 
APe the chosen leader of the people. God give you strength to so bear the 
Isonors and meet the duties of that great office for which you are now nomin- 
ed and to which you will be elected, that your administration will enhance 
dignity and power and glory of this Eepublic, and secure the safety, -Weiraxe 
and happiness.of its liberty-loving people." (Great applause.) 



Major flcKinley's Response. 

"Senator Thurston and Gentlemen op the Notification Committee op the 
Republican National Convention: To be selected as their Presidential 
eandidate by a great party convention, representing so vast a number of the 
people of the United States, is a most distinguished honor, for which I would 
aot conceal my high appreciation, although deeply sensible of the great 
responsibilities of the trust, and my inability to bear them without the gener- 
is and constant support of my fellow countrymen. Great as is the honor 
jonferred, equally arduous and important is the duty imposed, and in accept- 
ing the one I assume the other, relying upon the patriotic devotion of thfo 
people to the best interests of our beloved country, and the sustaining care 
and aid of Him without whose support all we do is empty and vain. Should 
the people ratify the choice of the great Convention for which you speak, my 
only aim will be to promote the public good, which in America is always the 
good of the greatest number, the honor of our country, and the welfare of the 
people. The questions to be settled in the National contest this year are as 
serious and important as any of the great governmental problems that have 
confronted us in the past quarter of a century. They command our sober 
judgment, and a settlement free from partisan prejudice and passion, beneficial 
to our selves and befitting the honor and grandeur of the Eepublic. They 

24 



touch every interest of our common country. Our industrial supremacy, our 
productive capacity, our business and commercial prosperity, our labor and its 
rewards, our National credit and currency, our proud financial honor, and our 
splendid free citizenship— the birthright of every American— are all involved 
in the pending campaign, and thus every home in the land is directly and 
intimately connected with their proper settlement. Great are the issues 
involved in the coming election, and eager and earnest the people for their 
right determination. Our domestic trade mus+- oe won back, and our idle 
working people employed in gainful occupa*-^as at American wages. Our 
home market must be restored to its proud Tan/ of fi: -t in the world, and our 
foreign trade, so precipitately cut off by '.vtv^' it^ "^'ational legislation, reopened 
on fair and equitable terms for our surpn" . a%-.cuxtural and manufacturing 
products. Protection and Reciprocjtv '-/in measures of a true American 
policy, should again command the ear-^ec*. encouragement of the Government 
at "Washington. Public confidence tr xst be resumed, and the skill, the energy 
and the capital of our countrv find amj>le employment at home, sustained, 
encouraged and defended against the unequal competition and serious disad- 
vantages with which they are now contending. (Applause.) 

"The Government of the United States must raise enough money to meet 
both its current expenses and increasing needs. Its revenues should be so 
raised as to protect the material interests of our people, with the lightest 
possible drain upon their resources, and maintain that high standard of civili- 
zation which has distinguished our country for more than a century of its 
existence. The income of the Government, I repeat, should equal its necessary 
and proper expenditures, A failure to pursue this policy has compelled ^ 
Government to bon-ow money in a time of peace to sustain its credit and paj 
its daily expenses. This policy should be reversed, and that, too, as speedilj 
as possible. It must be apparent to all, regardless of past party ties or affilia- 
tions, that it is our paramount duty to provide adequate revenue for the 
•expenditures of the Government, economically and prudently administered- 
This the Kepublican party has heretofore done, and this I confidently believe 
it will do in the future, when the party is again entrusted with power in the 
legislative and executive branches of our Government. The National credit, 
■which has thus far fortunately resisted every assault upon it, must and will b--^ 
upheld and strengthened. If sufficient revenues are provided for the support 
of the Government, there will be no necessity for bon-owing money and increas- 
aug the public debt. The complaint of the people is not against the Adminis- 
tration for boiTowing money and issuing bonds to preserve the credit of the 
■country, but against the ruinous policy which has made this necessary. It is 
"but an incident, and a necessary one, to the policy which has been inagurated. 
The inevitable effect of such a policy is seen in the deficiency of the United 
States Trcasui-y, except as it is replenished by loans, and in the distress of the 
people who are suffering because of the scant demand for either their labor or 
the products of their labor. Here is the fundamental trouble, the remedy for 
•which is Republican opportunity and duty. During all the years of Republican 
control following resumption, there was a steady reduction of the public debt, 
while the gold reserve was sacredly maintained, and our currency and credit 
preserved without depreciation, taint or suspicion. If we would restore this 
policy, that brought us unexampled prosperity for more than thirty years 
under the most trying conditions ever known in this country, the policy by 
which we made and bought more goods at home and sold more abroad^ the trade 

'25 



balance would be quickly turned in our favor, and gold would come to us and 
not go from us in the settlement of all such balances in the future. (Cheers.) 

" The party that supplied by legislation the vast revenues for the conduct of 
our greatest war ; that promptly restored the credit of the counti-y at its close ; 
that from its abundant revenues paid off a large share of the debt incurred in 
this war, and that resumed specie payments and placed our paper currency 
upon a sound and enduring basis, can be safely trusted to preserve both our 
credit and currency, with honor, stability and inviolability. Tlie American 
people hold the financial honor of our Government as sacred as our flag, and 
can be relied upon to guard it with the same sleepless vigilance. They hold its 
preservation above party fealty, and have often demonstrated that party ties 
avail nothing when the spotless credit of our country is threatened. The money 
of the United States, and every kind or form of it, whether of paper, silver or 
gold, must be as good as the best in the world. It must not only be current at 
its full face value at home, but it must be counted at par in any and every 
commercial center of the globe. The sagacious and far-seeing policy of the 
great men who founded our Government; the teachings and acts of the wisest 
financiers at every stage in our history; the steadfast faith and splendid 
achievements of the great party to which we belong, and the genius and 
integrity of our people have always demanded this^and will ever maintain it. 
The dollar paid to the farmer, the wage-earner, and the pensioner must continue 
forever equal in purchasing and debt-paying power to the dollar paid to any 
Government creditor. (Great applause.) 

" The contest this year will not be waged upon lines of theory and specula- 
tion, but in the light of severe practical experience and new and dearly acquired 
knowledge. The great body of our citizens know what they want, and that 
they intend to have. They know for what the Republican party stands and 
what its return to power means to them. They realize that the Republican 
party believes that our work should be done at home and not abroad, and 
everywhere proclaim their devotion to the principles of a protective tariff,, 
which, while supplying adequate revenues for the Government, will restore- 
American production, and serve the best interests of American labor and devel- 
opment. Our appeal, therefore, is not to a false philosophy, or vain theoristsr 
but to the masses of the American people, the plain, practical people, whom 
Lincoln loved and trusted, and whom the Republican party has always faitli- 
fully striven to serve. (Applause.) 

" The Platform adopted by the Republican National Convention has received 
tny careful consideration and has my unqualified approval. It is a matter of 
gratification to me, as I am sure it must be to you and Republicans everywhere,, 
and to all our people, that the expressions of its declaration of principles are so. 
direct, clear and emphatic. They are too plain and positive to leave any 
chance for doubt or question as to their purport and meaning. But you will: 
not expect me to discuss its provisions at length, or in any detail, at this 
time. It will, however, be my duty and pleasure at some future day to make to- 
you, and through you to the gi*eat party you represent, a more formal accept- 
ance of the nomination tendered mo. 

" No one could be more profoundly grateful than I am for the manifestations- 
of public confidence of which you have so eloquently spoken. It shall be my 
aim to attest this appreciation by an unsparing devotion to what I esteem the 
best interests of the people, and in this work I ask the counsel and support of 
you, gentlemen, and of every other friend of the country. The generous- 
expressions with which you, sir convey the oflBcial notice of my nomination' 

26 



are highly appreciated, and as fully reciprocated, and I thank you, and your 
associates of the Notification Committee, and the great party and convention 
at whose instance you come, for the high and exceptional distinction bestowed 
upon me." (Great applause, and "three cheers for our next President." 

The Notification Committee consisted of the following gentlemen: 
Alabama, Charles D. Alexander, Attalla ; Alaska, C. S. Johxsox, Juneau; 
Arizona, Joirx "W. Dorrixgton, Yuma; Arkansas, Hexky M. Cooper, Little 
Rock, represented by Colonel H. L. Eemmel, Newport; California, Fraxk 

A. Miller, Riverside; Connecticut, George E. Sykes, Eockville; Delaware, 
Hexry G. Morse, Wilmington ; Florida, Dexxis Eagax, Jacksr.nville ; Georgia, 
MoxROE E. MoRTOx, (colored), Athens; Illinois, Charles H. Deere, Moline ; 
Indiana, Hiram Browxlee, Marion ; Indian Territory, Joseph R. Foltz, South 
McAlister ; Iowa, Calvix Maxxixg, Ottumwa ; Kansas, Nathaxiel Barnes, 
Kansas City; Kentucky, John P. McCartxey, Flemingsburg; Louisiana, 
Walter L. Cohex, (colored). New Orleans; Maine, George P, Wdstcott, 
Portland, represented by Hon. Charles E. Towxsexd, Brunswick; Maryland, 
WiLLiAii F. Airy, Baltimore; Massachusetts, Martix V. B. Jeffersox, 
Worcester; Michigan, Thomas J. O'Briex, Grand Rapids; Minnesota, Moxroe 
Nichols, Duluth; Mississippi, W. D. Frazee, West Point; Missouri, T. H. 
Haughawout, Carthage ; Nebraska, John T. Bressler, Wayne; Nevada, Johk 

B. Overtox, Virginia City ; New Hj>mpshire, William D. Sawyer, Dover ; New 
Jersey, Ferdinaxd W. Roeblixg, Trenton; New Mexico, Pedro Perea. 
Bernalillo, represented by Captain Jack Crawford, "the Poet Scout," Santa, 
Fe; New York, Frank Hiscock, Saratoga; North Carolina, Claude M. Bernard, 
Greenville ; North Dakota, C. M. Johnson, Dwight; Ohio, Marcus A. IL\nna, 
Cleveland ; Oklahoma, Joiix A. Buckles, Enid; Oregon, Charles B. Hilton, 
The Dalles; Pennsylvania, Theodore L. Flood, Meadville ; Rhode Island, 
John C. Sanborn, Newport ; South Carolina, E. H. Dees, (colored), Darlington, 
South Dakota, Walter E. Smead, Lead City; Tennessee, Ernest Caldwell 
Shelby^'ille ; Texas, J. W. Butler, Tyler; Utah, Lindsay R. Rodgers, Ogden; 
Vermont, James W. Brock, Montpelier, represented by Judge H. A. 
Huse, Burlington; Virginia, J. S. Browxixg, Pocahontas; Washington, 
Hexy L. Wilson, Spokane; West Virginia, W. Newton Lynch, 
Martinsburg; Wisconsin, M. C. Ring, Neillsville; Wyoming, Henry J. 
NiCKERSON, Lander. Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indianapolis, Temporary 
Chairman of the National Convention, was also present, and spoke at the no- 
tification meeting. The notification exercises were held at Major McKinley's 
residence, himself, wife and mother, with other members of the family, appear- 
ing on the front porch, from wiiich Senator Thurstox and himself spoke 
to the Committee, who were seated on camp chairs on the lawn during the 
entire ceremonies, which were witnessed by thousands of enthusiastic visitors 
and citizens. At thc:v close a luncheon was served the Committee in a large 
tent on the lawn in the rear of the residence. 



THE CONVENTION GAVEL. 



During the notification proceedings Mr. Henry H. Smith, of Washington, 
D. C, formerly a clerk in the House of Representatives, presented 
Major McKinley with the gavel used in the St. Louis Convention when lie 
was nominated for President. Its history, as described by Mr. Smith, i* 
as follows : 



'•Major McKixley: This gavel was presented to the National Convention 
by Mr. W. H. Bartells, of Carthage, Illinois. It was made from a log takea 
from the cabin occupied by Abraham Lincoln in 1832 at Salem, Illinois. On 
one head of the gavel is inscribed on a silver plate the name of the donor and 
the above stated facts, while on the other on a gold plate, appear the words: 
'National Republican Convention, held at St. Louis, Missouri, June 16, 1896, 
nominating William McKinley for President.' This gavel, which stands as 
en emblem and type of sturdy Americanism and American homes and 
industries, was placed in my hands as Assistant Secretary of the Convention, 
and of the Notification Committee, for presentation to you on this most happy 
-occasion." 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Smith: I thank you for this beautiful gift, and for the courteous 
terms in which you have conveyed the wishes of the Convention. I am glad to 
have so valuable a souvenir of the eleventh great National Convention of the 
Republican party, and am especially grateful for the remembrance on account 
of the historic associations connecting it with the name of the martyred 
.Lincoln, whose memory is an inspiration to every American." (Applause.) 



COLUHBUS CLUBS CONGRATULATE Hlfl. 

While the Committee on Notification were lunching a large delegation 
from Columbus, Ohio, arrived via the Ft. Wayne Railroad. There were seven 
coaches in the train bringing the delegation, and included in it were the 
Buckeye Republican Club, the Columbus Glee Club, and several hundred 
other citizens, headed by the famous Fourteenth Regiment Band. They 
marched at once to the McKinley residence where they were presented by 
Hon. David K. Watson, Member of Congress from the Columbus district, who 
gpoke as follows: 

"Major McKinley: The Republicans of the Capital City of this State 
have come to pay their respects to you as the candidate for President of the 
United States, nominated at St. Louis by the great Republican party to the 
highest and greatest office which it is possible for a human being to occupy. 
During the four years that you were Governor of Oliio you resided among us, 
and in that time we learned to greatly admire and esteem you personally, and 
to have unbounded confidence in your future life. The Republican party is 
entering upon its eleventh great contest for National supremacy. Forty years 
ago it lost its first battle under the leadership of Fremont, because the States 
of Pennsylvania and Illinois cast their electoral votes for the Democratic can- 
didate. But those great States have quit that nonsense, and this year their 
electoral votes will be cast for you. (Loud cheers.) The Republican party 
won its second and third great contests under the leadership of Lincoln ; ita 
fourth and fifth under Grant ; its sixth under Hayes ; its seventh under Gar- 
field; we lost the eighth under Blaine; won the ninth under Harrison, and 
lost with him the tenth. But, sir, we know we will win the eleventh under 
your magnificent leadership. (Loud applause.) In the halls of Congress you 
were the one great man who always led American thought in the direction of 
protection to American labor. (Cheers.) You have always stood for a higher 
American manhood and the development of American character. Your 

28 



Kational policy gave American markets to American products at American 
prices, and to-day, as ever, you still stand for all that is Republican and 
American. You are to many people, in a peculiar sense, both candidate 
and platform, and condensed the entire issue of this campaign into a single 
f^entence when you declared a^ Chicago on Lincoln's birtliday, last February, 
that 'the Republican party stands now, as ever in the past, for an honest dollar 
and the chance to earn it by honest toil." (Cheers.) The Republicans of 
<-!olumbus, Ohio, greet you as the next President of this, the great Republic." 
^Prolonged applause.) 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

''Congressman Watson and My Fellow Citizens of Columbus: You have 
I'one me great honor which I highly appreciate, by the call you have 
made upon me to-day. It is with great pleasure I recall the four years 1 
Kpent in the Capital City, for that old town became, indeed, very dear tome. 
1 felt through those years that there was not a moment that I did not 
have the sympathy, the support, the good will, the constant encouragement 
of the citizens of Columbus, irrespective of political affiliations. No four 
years of my public service were more agreeable to me, and I shall always 
cherish their pleasant memories. (Appiause.) I thank you, Congressman 
Watson, for the gracious words you have spoken personal to myself. I do 
believe in my country, I believe in its vast resources and capacities, and I 
believe that it is entirely with the people to say what shall be the possibilities 
of the future for the United States. Lincoln said the people never had been 
appealed to in the right way in vain, and I am sure, in the bright light of his 
faith, that the people of this country, from ocean to ocean, will stand by those 
principles and policies that will secure to the United States the greatest 
prosperity and conserve its highest destiny. (Cheers.) We have present 
with us, and it gives me great pleasure to present to you, some of the Notifica- 
tion Committee from the Republican National Convention. The first gentle- 
man I desire to present is that illustrious citizen of Nebraska, her great 
United States Senator, Hon. John M. Thukston." (Prolonged applause.) 



Senator Thurston's Pleasant Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: It has been a matter of great gratification to me- 
to come here to-day in an official capacity for the purpose of bringing notifica- 
tion to Major McKinley that the people of this country had determined that 
he shall be the next President of the United States. (Loud applause.) We 
have come to Ohio once again for our candidate, but not merely because Ohio 
is his native State. Washington and Lincoln do not belong to Virginia and 
Illinois alone, they are part of the priceless inheritance of the American people. 
Ohio has given birth to Grant and Garfield, Hayes and Harrison, and, gi'eat 
as any — McKinley. (Loud applause.) But we made them Presidents of the 
United States not because they stood for the State of Ohio, but because they 
stood for the' Nation, as broad as the land and an Americanism as glorious as 
the flag. (Loud applause.) Four years ago the Democratic party said to the 
American people, "Give us free trade, and the prosijcrity of this country will 
increase." You voted free trade and prosperity receded. They said, "Give us- 

29 



free trade and new industries and factcn-ies will open," but they flosed. They 

said, "Give us free tnide and there will be increased employment for Americnii 

labor," but there was incwased idl -ness instead. They said, "Give us frop 

trade and wages will rise," but they failed to rise. They said, "Give us free 

trade and business will boom," but it busted (Laughter and applause.) 

To-day in the light of their past experience*it is absolutely necessary to 
abandon their old petition, and they now say, "G;ive us free silver and all these 
glorious results will follow." Don't you think in the light of their past 
repudiation and bankruptcy that you had better have a little collateral 
security before you accept their new promise of American prosperity? (Loud 
applause.) The Republican party stands for a dollar on which there shall be 
an American eagle— but with no feathers dragging in the dust. (Applause. 1 
The Republican party declares that the labor which is to be done for the 
people of the United States shall be done by the people of the United States 
and under the glorious old Stars and Stripes. (Cheers.) I thank you for this 
distinction and for your kindness in listening to me. From now until the cam- 
paign closes, I shall go forward from stump to stump not only with boundless 
enthusiasm for the platform and for the nominees but with the absolute 
assurance that the American people know what they want and that they are 
getting it just as fast as they can." (Loud cheers.) 



Mr. Hiscock's Happy Reply. 

Major McKiNLEY then introduced ex-Senator Frank Hiscock, of Syracuse, 
New York, who spoke as follows : 

"Ladies and Gentlemen : You are here to-day as the immediate friends and 
neighbors of Major McKixley, the candidate of the Republican party for the 
Presidency. Youi- hearts are overflowing with love for him; your judgments 
approve him and you most lieartily endorse the principles for which he has so 
long labored, and which are now the platform of the Republican party. I 
came here from the State of New York, representing that State as a member of 
the Notification Committee to notify him of his nomination, and I say to you 
that he is as truly in the liearts of the people of tlie State of New York, as he 
is in yours. (Loud applause.) I proclaim to you without fear of contra- 
diction, that he is as much approved by the Republicans of the State of New 
York, and not by their judgments alone, but by those of one-half of the Demo- 
cratic party of the State of New York also (laughter and applause) as he is by 
you. This year we liad a superabundance of candidates for tlie Presidency — 
men jr.stly presented as statesmen of no mean merit. Thomas B. Reed is a 
great man. (Applause.) New York presented the name of the grand Governor 
of our State, Levi P. Morton, who was elected by 156,000 majority. (Applause. ) 
Iowa presented the name of William B. Allison, her great statesman. 
(Applause.) But Ohio presented the name of William McKinley. (Loud yells 
and applause.) Now I say to you, confidentially, that before Ohio presented 
his name tlie people had already in their hearts ratified his nomination. 
(Laughter and applause.) I have only this to say to you in conclusion: We 
have our own little difficulties in New York, once in a whilQ. (Laughter 
and applause.) But while that is true, and while it is a fact that we have as 
many difficulties and fight as severely over them as the people of any other State 
in the Union, still in proportion to population, as well as in actual figures, 

30 



Xew York will glre a larger majority for "Wn-LiAjr ^IcKi.vley next Novemloer 
than Ohio can possibly give him." (Great applause.) 

Excellent short speeches were also made of the most enthrsiastic character 
by Hon. Cii.\rles E. Tuwxsexd, of Elaine ; Dr. TunoDoKiii L. Flood, of Pennsyl- 
vania, Hon. J. S. Browxixg, of Virginia; Judge J. A. Huse, of Vermont ; Hon. 
Henry L. WiLsox, of "\Vashinj7t0n ; Hon. Charles T\". Fairbanks, of Indiana;. 
Colonel H. L. Eemmel, of Arkansas ; Hon. Calvix jIaxxixg, of Iowa; Hon. M. 
V. B. Jeffersox, of Massachusetts, and Hon. M. A. Haxxa, of Ohio, while an 
original poem was recited by Captain Jack Crawford, of New Mexico. It i* 
safe to say that never on any previous occasion of the kind liad there been so 
great a demonstration ; never such indisputable evidences of hai-mony, enthu- 
siam, and confidence; never such determination to succeed, and never a more 
flattering prospect of sweeping success. 

THE UNION VETERAN LEQPON. 

At the conclusion of the speech-making, at the N^otificatfon Meeting on 
June 29th, a committee of soldiers from Columbus, Ohio, waited upon Major 
McKinley and presented him the following interesting memorial : 

Headquarters Encampment No. 78, 
Union Veteran Legion. 

CoLUMBrs, Ohio, June 23, 1896. 
Whereas, One of the members of tliis encampment, in the person of 
Comrade William McKinley, has been selected by one of the great political 
parties as its candidate f( r President at the coming National election ; there- 
fore be it 

Resolved by this Encampment, That we congratulate our comrade, WrLUAM 
■^McKinley, whose record as a soldier, statesman and patriot has won for him 
the respect and admiration of the civilized world, on tlie prospect of his being 
XJalled to the highest executive office of the country he fought to preserve ; and 
Resol-ccd further. That we rejoice that this Encampment is honoi-ed by 
containing on its roll of members one whose record and worth have bi-ought 
to him this deserved recognition and high endorsement from a large and 
representative body of his fellow countrymen. 
Adopted. 

Theodore Jones Colonel, 
C. C. HiGGiNS, cAdjtdant, 
Lloyd Meyers, 
3. Ed. Minnich, 
Warner Mills, 

Committee. 

TIPPECANOE VETERANS ALSO. 

On the same day INIajor McKinley was also pi-esented with the following 
address : 

The Old Tippecanoe Club of Chicago, Illinois, organized in 1888 by veterans 
who voted in 1840 for General William Hexry Harrisox for President of the 
United States, congratulates the country upon the nomination by the Republi- 
can National Convention of Hon. William McKinley for that higli office. 
We feel confident of his triumphant election, and believe that under his admir 

31 



istration the cardinal principle f .' wiiich the members of this Club have always 
contended, American protection to American industries and American labor 
will be readopted into law and permanently sustained. With reciprocity in 
trade and the currency intact at one hundred cents on the dollar, according 
to the Republican platform, the dignity as well as the financial honor and 
integrity of the Nation will be inviolably maintained, and the hum of diversi- 
fied industry, everywhere resounding throughout the land, will be evidence 
conclusive of returned and enduring prosperity, and of happiness and content- 
ment among all the people. 

Unanimously adopted, June 27, 1896. 

Thomas Goodman, President. 
' C. R. Hagerty, Secretary. 



OLD HEDINA CONGRATULATES BOTH NOfllNEES. 

Hon. Garret A. Hobart, of New Jersey, the Republican candidate for 
Vice President, arrived at Canton, via the Pennsylvania lines, on Tuesday 
morning, June 30th. He was met at the depot by Major McKinley and driven 
in his carriage to the McKinley home, there being no public demonstrations, 
in deference to the wishes of both candidates. It happened, however, that 
soon after the arrival of Mr. Hobart, several hundred of the leading citizens of 
Medina County, Ohio, arrived via Massillon on the Interiu-ban Electric Rail- 
way, and were escorted to Major McKinley's residence by the Canton Troop 
of Invincible Republicans. The visitors came from Medina, Wadsworth, Lodi, 
River Styx, and other points in Medina County, and were headed by the Lodi 
Band. The Medina Glee Club, also accompanied them and sang " In A Little 
While," and other campaign airs effectively. The " Old Guard at Orrville," 
in 1884, as one of the campaign banners called them, was also numerously rep- 
resented. Judge Albert Munson, of Medina, who had the honor of presenting 
Major McKinley's name in both the conventions at Orrville in 1884, and again 
in 1890, was now^ selected by his friends to introduce them to " the next Presi- 
dent." He said: 

"Major McKinley: We come to-day upon no political errand, but to 
renew the old friendships that w^ere made in 1884 and to pledge anew our 
fealty to the principles of the grand old party which you so ably represent as 
its Presidential candidate in the pending campaign. The years as they have 
passed into hitstory since 1884 have made great changes in men, parties and 
events. But one thing we know, principles never change. They are eternal; 
they withstand the viTeck of time and the decay and dissolution of nations. 
The record of the Republican party stands without a peer in the history of 
political organizations. Its fame is secure ; neither time, nor the changes 
made by time, in the lATeck of kingdoms and principalities, which is sure 
to come in the onward flow of events, in nature's unbending order, will ever 
diin or efface the brilliancy of the record of the grand old party." [Judge 
Munson then spoke at some length of the Republican party and its record, 
contrasting it with the unfulfilled promises of the Democratic party, and in 
conclusion said:] "Should it be your mission, of which we have no doubt, to 
lead this great people out of the wilderness of distress and unrest up into the 
highlands of a broad and expanding industrial prosperity, you will be hailed 
and recognized as a public benefactor iu every town, village, and city of the 
great Republic." (Applause.) 

32 



riajor ricKinley's Response. 

" Judge Muxson axd My Fellow-Citizexs: I would not conceal my gratl 
flcation at this friendly call from my old friends and formei* constituents c 
Medina County. I recall that in my public career the people of Medin. 
County rendei'ed devoted and unwavering service to the Republican cause, 
of which, for the moment, I stood by designation of m.y part'' . as its standard- 
bearer, in two important Congressional contests. Twelve years ago, as is known 
to most of you, by an act of the State Legislature, your c(umty was placed in 
my Congressional district. The district was believed t<^ be Democratic, and 
was made to be Democratic ; and I shall never forget that in that Contest your 
grand old county gave for the Republican candidate the largest n\ajority 
it had ever given in its history, and saved the district to the Republi- 
can cause. (Great applause.) I recall, too, that in 1890, the last Congi-ess- 
ional race I ever made, in another district believed to be reliably Democratic 
by more than three thousand majority, when tht votes were counted 
out, that by the help of Medina and the other counties >f the district, and by 
the help of men of all parties, too, the three thousand adverse majority had 
been reduced to three hundred, in the largest vote ev^er polled in the four 
counties comprising the district at any election iu all its history. Such 
friendship, devotion and loyalty can never fade from my memory, and 
your presence here this morning in such large numbers brings to mind a 
thousand interesting memories connected with those two campaigns. 
(Applause.) Medina County has always stood by the Republican cause, 
because she has believed that enveloped in that cause were the best interests 
and highest prosperity of the American people. (Applause.) I thank you, 
my fellow citizens, not only for your devotion to Republican principles in the 
l^ast, but for your devotion to home and country both in peace and war, at 
every point in our history. This patriotic zeal I wai'mly commend, (cheers,) 
and I thank your venerable Chairman, my good old friend, Judge MuxsoN for 
his and your assurance of support of the same principles in the future. We 
have v.ith us this morning, and can consider ourselves most fortunate — the 
nominee of the great Republican party for Vice President of the United 
States, Gakret A. IIobart, of New Jersey. (Cries of 'Hurrah for Hobart !') T 
know you will be delighted to see and hear from him, and it gives me except 
ional pleasure to be able to present him to you." (Great applause.) 



MR. HOBART'S ADDRESS. 

As Mr. HoBART stepped to tlie edge of the porch there was another demon- 
stration in his honor, and three hearty cheers were given him. The peoj)lt: 
were evidently delighted with his appearance, and were bound that he sliould 
know it. AVhen comparative silence was secured, he said: 

"Major McKixley, Gextlemex op Medina County, and Fellow Citizexs 
OP Ohio: I thank you for the compliment of this call, but I must say at the 
same time that I am not gifted, as our friend Major McKixley is in the graces 
of oratory and ease of diction that will permit me to talk long to you. 
(Cries of 'Go on.') I think I should speak but briefly on this occasion, when 
my only business is to pay my respects to your most distinguished fellow 
citizen, Major McKixley. (Applause.) But New Jersey, gentlemen, feels very 
near to Ohio these days. (Laughter.) In the great Republican convention 

33 



lately held in St. Louis there were no mere constant frienr's, no more devoted 
admirers of your Major MoKinley than were the delegate* from the State of 
Kew Jersey. (Cheers and applause.) We feel, too, gentlemen, that we 
hare some little right to say a word in a Republican convention nowadays, for 
last November we carried the State of New Jersey for the Republican party by 
ihe grand majority of twenty-seven thousand, nine hundred votes. (Great 
applause.) New Jersey greets Ohio to-dav. and if the Republicans and 
Democrats both feel then, as it seems they feel now, that we are fighting for 
National honor or National dishc~or, for National prosperity or National 
bankruptcy, and most of them, as looks rather probable now, vote with us, then 
^ew Jersey will greet Ohio next November with a Republican inajority of not 
less than fifty thousand votes. (Applause.) I thank you, gentlemen, for the com- 
plment of your call but I did not intend to try to make a speech. I will be 
glad, however, to meet as many of you personally as possible during the inter- 
val which you spend here to-day." (Great applause.) 

Then both Major McKinley and Mr. Hobart shook hands with hundreds of 
ihe big crowd before it dispersed, evidently very much pleased with their 
jpandidatea. Mr. Hobakt m as tendered a reception by the various Republican 
Clubs of Canton that evening, but was obliged to return East via Cleveland 
immediately. 

PITTSBURG LAWYERS CALL. 

The Allegheny County (Pittsburg) Bar Association, embracing a member- 
ship of more than tUx-ee hundred attorneys, hr.d spent the day (June 30th) at 
Congress Lake, Stark Country, twelve miles north oi Canton, having come from 
Pittsburg that morning by special train over the 0., C. & S. Railroad. On their 
jeturn trip, it was decided by the Association to call and pay their respects to 
Major McKinley, the party to march to his residence, headed by Thayer's Band, 
and a Committee consisting of Judges White, Slagle, Over and Magee, of the 
Allegheny County Bench, with Judge George E. Baldwin, of Canton, as hon- 
ary escort. Here the company were presented by Judge White in the 
following address: 

Major McKinley : The Pittsburg Bar is as fine a lot of men as you ever 
Jaid eyes on. (Laughter. ) After spending the day in one of the most delightful 
places in the State of Ohio, or Pennsylvania, or any other State, we thought it 
T/ould not do to pass through Canton without calling upon you. We do not 
want you to make any speech, and do not expect you to shak hands with us ; 
you must not do it. We simply want to see you because we have seen some 
ilttle about you in the newspapers. (Laughter and applause.) We wanted to 
see the young soldier who left college to join the grand army of the Republic 
as a private, not going in as a commissioned officer. We wanted to see the 
l)oy who served during the war and by his faithfulness as a private soldier got 
lo an honorable position in the Army upon a promotion given hira by 
Abraham Lincoln for 'gallant and meritorious conduct in battle.' (Applause.) 
Tiien we wanted to see what Robert Burns says is the 'noblest work of God — an 
Jjonestman.' (Loud cheering.) We wanted to see a pure representative of the 
teman family, a good citizen— the highest honor or title that C£^n be conferred 
ijpon any one— a good American citizen." (Applause.) 



34 



riajor McKinley's Response. 

" Ji'DGE "White and Members of the Bench and Bar op Allegheny County: 
1 have no mirpose to inflict a speech upon you, but I can not refrain presenting 
myself h'ng enough to thank you for the compliment and lionor of this call, for 
I deem it both a high compliment and distinguished honor to have the gentle- 
:nen of the legal profession of the gi'eat, busy, pushing, progi-ess* \ '^ city of 
Pitlsl)urg call upon me at my home. (Applause.) I regretted that my 
engagements would not permit my joining you in the pleasures at Con- 
gi-ess Lake to-day — and it was only engagements already made, which could 
not be set aside, that prevented my being with you in person, as I was witli you 
in thought and good will. (Cheers.) I thank your spokesman for his touching, 
generous and eloquent words, and if it had not been prohibited, I would have 
been very glad to shake each of you by the hand. (Laughter.) But as it has 
been, I must not disregard the order of the court, although I believe you 
are now beyond Judge White's jurisdiction." (Laughter and applause.) 

Three hearty cheers " for the next President " were then given, and then 
three cheers and a tiger again, and then there was a general rush to greet 
Major McKiNLEY. No one could respect the injunction of even Judge White 
■when it came to that. 



VISITORS FROM ST. LOUIS. 

Hon. Eiohard C. Kerens and party, of St. Louis, arrived at Canton via 
the Pan Handle and C, C. and S. Raih-oads, Wednesday afternoon, July 1st. 
The visitors were representative business men and Republicans in Missouri, 
and included C. H. Spencer, S. A. Bemis, ex-Governor E. O. Stannard, Mayor 
Hastings, of Sedalia, and C. G. Warner. They were received by Major 
2^IcKiNLEY in his library, where a short address was read by Mr. Kerens, as 
follows : 

" Major McKiNLEY : We come to tender you our fervent congratulations 
both on your nomination and the excellent outlook for your election and 
Republican success generally. We endorse and espouse every word of the 
Republican Party's platform, and refer with shame to the abrogation of the 
reciprocity treaties whereby, in one instance alone, there was taken from the 
^•eat valley of the Mississippi a flourishing and remunerative trade with the 
West Indies in breadstuffs, which amounted to millions annually, and which 
was ruthlessly stricken down without reason or pretense of benefit to any 
body. We do not disparage the money question ; the Republican party has 
always been sound in its financial policies. But we do insist that the policy 
of protection to American industries, affecting as it does the wage-earner, the 
manufacturer, the producer of every class, is of paramount importance ; that 
the goods and wares consumed by our people shall be manufactured in our 
country, furnishing employment to millions and stopping the flow of gold 
which under free trade conditions goes to the other world — goes to pay for 
manufactured articles freely admitted to our excellent home market in 
competition with our formerly prosperous and independent laborers, although 
made by the poorly paid wage-earners of foreign countries. The Republican 
j)arty, on its record, can be trusted to fm-nish the best money of the civilized 
world ; the Democratic party just the reverse, and we hold its free trade policy 
<iirectly responsible for nine-tenths of the depression, the reduction ia 

35 



wages, the armies of unemployed, the depreciation in values the country over. 
In one instance alone, that of railway securities, the depreciation in values has- 
amounted to thousands of millions of dollars." 



flajor flcKinley's Response. 

"Gentlemen: I appreciate highly the call of this representative body 
of business men of the city of St. Louis and the State of Missouri, and thanli. 
you for your expressions of regard and good will. I feel that in the address 
that has been read to me, you have made a strong argument. What we want 
is a restoration of the American economic policy which lasted for more than 
thirty years, and under which we enjoyed exceptional prosperity. What the 
Republican party has done in the past for the country, it can be relied upon to 
do in the future. It should be a matter of pride and gi-atification to us all 
that the party, although only a little more than a third of a century old, has 
never failed to meet every demand and exigepcy of the Government, however 
gloomy the outlook, or desperate the condition of the country, when it was called 
to power. History repeats itself, and I am sure that if the cardinal doctrines 
of the Republican party. Protection, Reciprocity and Sound Money, can be 
carried by a pronounced majority this year, confidence will again be quickly 
restored. After all, confidence has everything to do with the business of the 
country, and when was it ever more badly needed than now, and to what source 
can it be looked for if not to the Republican party ? This the people fully 
realize, and by their votes will decree that we shall enter upon an era of better 
times, which, I believe, will last for many years." 



THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVORERS. 

The annual State Convention of the Christian Endeavor Society of Ohio 
was in session in Canton for a fortnight preceding Wednesday, July 1st. On 
that afternoon about five thousand of its members, women and men, repaired to 
Major McKinley's residence and were introduced by Mr. J. H. Bomberoer, 
of Mansfield, President of the State Society. In reply to his address Major 
MoKinley spoke to the gi-eat host as follows : 

"Mr. Bomberger and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Christian Endeavor 
Society op the State op Ohio: It gives me sincere pleasure to welcome you, 
and your Society in this delegated capacity, to my home, and I thank you all 
for the courtesy and warmth of your gi'eeting. The peoi^le of Canton are glad 
to have you among them and in their behalf, as well as my own, I feel free ta 
bid you a hearty and hospitable welcome. (Cheers.) Free governments have 
uniformly recognized their dependence upon a Higher Power and taken steps 
to promote morality and the diffusion of knowledge among their citizens. In 
the United States this has been steadily the aim of our local and State govern- 
ments, and in the advancement of this great work all good people, without 
respect to the denominational connections, have had an active and useful part. 
In every proper, charitable, broad and generous effort, I bid you godspeed, and 
commend to your observance, and for y«ur example, that lofty and noble policy, 
that truly jiatriotic and philantliropic devotion to the amelioration and 
uplifting of mankind, which so conspicuously distinguished the founders of 
this mighty, free Republic. Let us cherish the institutions of civil and 

36 



-eligious liberty which they planted in the wilderness, and that have been so 
signally preserved for us to the present hour, and continue them in all their 
vigor, strength and beauty for countless generations yet to come. A higher 
Inspect for these institutions, a deeper reverence of law, a closer attention to 
the requirements of good citizenship, a wider inculcation of the spirit of charity, 
forbearance and good will to all, and a more constant and earnest endeavor for 
the enlightenment and advancement of all our people, can not, I am sure, but 
be in keeping with the purposes of Almighty God toward this greatly favored 
Nation, and to you who may engage in this noble work, and to all who are so 
engaged everywhere, I devoutly wish the fullest measure of success and happi- 
ness." (Great applause.) 

The grand old National anthem "America!' was sung ^yj ths -:eo-??e and then 
came the .' ush to shake hands, and for nearly an hour Major McKinlev was 
busy receiving the happy throng. It "ya? -- .-"-c~- -iriLj-siastic meeting. 



THOUSANDS OF TUSCARAWAS PROTECTIONISTS. 

Thousands of Tuscarawas County men came to Canton, Friday, July 3rd, 
to pay their respects to the man of their choice for President. They came over 
a special train on the C, L. E and W. Railroad to Justus, where transfer was 
made to the C, Q. and S. Eailroad, on which they came to Canton, after trips 
of from twenty-five to forty miles. The delegation w^as headed by the Great 
Eastern Band, of New Philadelphia, and tlie Boys Drum Corps, of Canal Dover, 
The Tuscarawas delegation was composed largely of employes of the iron ':i'jcei 
and tin mills in Dennison, Uhrichsville, New Philadelphia and Cana- jjover. 
They carried several unique banners. Near the head of the column was a 
great banner made of tin, said to be the largest sheet of bright tin ever made 
in any country. It was thirty gauge thirty inches wide and twelve feet long. 
It was the product of the American Tin Plate Machine and Manufacturing 
Company and tlie Reeves Iron Company, the latter company rolling the black 
plate and the former coating it with tin. On one side of the banner, which was 
borne at tlie head of a long staff, was the inscription: *' Largest sheet ever 
made," and on the reverse side the w^ords: "Give us McKinley and Protection 
and we will make it larger." A score of men carried a strip of jointed tin sixty 
feet long bearing the name of tlie candidates: " Our choice, McKinley and 
Hobart!" Six employes of the New Philadelphia Iron and Steel Company 
carried a plate of galvanized iron which was said to be the largest 
sheet of that kind ever rolled. It was thirty inches wide and two hundred and 
fifty-five inches long. On the top of the decorated frame which supported it 
was a portrait of Major McKinley — and all these interesting souvenirs were 
presented to him before the delegation departed. Arriving at the McKinley 
residence, the band and drum corps each gave a selection, and then Col W. A. 
BovEY, of Dennison, stepped forward and addressed Major McKinley, who had 
come upon the veranda, as follows : 

"Major MoKinley: "We have come to your beautiful city and home this 
afternoon not as a crowd of curiosity seekers, but we are here as friends and 
neighbors in the strictest and most truthful acceptation of those terms. There 
is no class of labor or occupation but what is represented in this delegation. 
(Cheers.) In you we behold the typical American. In you, sir, these laborers 
and mechanics recognize one who has stood before the people at all times — 
in victory and defeat — and proclaimed protection to American industry. 

37 



(Cheers.) Your loyalty, sir, to 'Old Glory,' too, is dear to the heart of 
every lover of this country, and is so esteemed that it will never be forgotten 
until 'life's fitful dream is o'er.' "VVe are here to pledge ourselves from tliis 
time forward to every effort to place you in the Presidential chair, and we 
know from your past history that it will be honored for your sitting there."" 
(Applause and loud cheers for "McKinley !") 

Major McKinley's Response. 

In reply to their friendly greeting, Major McKinley stepped upon a chair 
at his door step and spoke to his visitors, as follows: 

"Colonel Bovey and My Fellow Citizens: I am very grateful for this 
visit on the part of my friends in Tuscarawas County, and I thank my old friend, 
your spokesman, for the cordial, generous and eloquent words of greeting 
which he has tendered in your behalf. This assemblage is fairly typical of 
our American communities, and fitly represents the varied occupations of the 
American people. As your spokesman has well said, in this audience are 
farmers, laborers, mechanics, miners, railroad employes, professional men- 
representatives of every rank and class of people. You are here, too, far 
from your homes, not from curiosity nor considerations at all personal, but 
because in your hearts you believe in the great fundamental doctrines of 
the Republican party. (Loud applause.) You believe that those principles 
are best for you whenever and wherever put into practical legislation and 
administration. You believe that those principles will secure to our people 
the largest measure of good to the greatest number, and you believe that, too, 
because you recall that for more than a third of a century these great Republi- 
can principles dominated legislation and administration in this country, and 
that during all that period you enjoyed exceptional prosperity, something you 
have not known the last three years and a haK. (Loud applause.) You know, 
therefore, something of these great principles from experience, which, after all, 
is the most unerring teacher, and you are eagerly waiting for the opportunity 
to express the lessons of that experience in your votes next November. (Cheers 
and cries of 'That's right,' and 'Wish the election was tomorrow.') All these 
demonstrations that have Ween witnessed here for the past .two weeks are only 
significant because they show what is in the hearts of the American people, that 
they want an opportunity — and they want it soon, too — to return to power that 
grand old party, to which your spokesman has so feelingly alluded, in every 
branch of the Government of the United States. Here in this country we are 
dependent upon each other, no matter what our occupation may be. All of 
us want good times, good wages, good prices, good markets, and then we want 
good money, too, and always intend to have it. (Vociferous cheering.) When 
we give a good day's work to our employers we want to be paid in good sound 
dollars, worth one hundred cents each, and never any less. Now, whatever policy 
will bring back these good times is the one that the great majority of the Amer- 
ican people favor, and will register their votes for at the coming election — and 
you seem to have made up your minds just what that policy is. (Applause.) 
What I want to see in this country is a return to that prosperity which we 
enjoyed for thirty years— prior to 1893. (Loud and continuous applause.) A 
policy that will put idle men at work at American wages (loud applause,) for 
the more men wo have at work at good American wages the better markets the 
farmers will have and the better prices they will get for their products. 

38 



Every farmer here knows that from experience. (Applause.) And now it wilt 
give me great pleasure to meet and greet all of you." (Tremendous applause 
and cheers.) 



COLORED CALLER5 FROH STARK COUNTY. 

It was nearly ten o'clock Friday night, July 3i-d, when delegations of ct^ 
ored people came from Canton, Massillon, Alliance, and other points in Stark 
County to call on Major McKinley. There were several hundred visitors, witk 
glee clubs, a drum corps, mandolin quartet and other musical features. 
"U'lLLi.^M Bell, of Massillon, acted as spokesman for them, and greeted Major 
McKixLEY with a few well chosen sentences expressive of the regard of the 
colored people for him. "You have always treated us, just as you do every- 
body else," said 'Mr. Bell, "with great consideration and kindness, and on every 
occasion have been our friend, champion and protector. We come to congrat- 
ulate you and assure you of our eai*nest support until you are triumphanttj 
elected next November." (Great applause.) 



Major ricKinley's Response. 

"]VIr. Bell and My Fellow Citizens op Staek County: I am glad to me^ 
you and receive your greetings and congratulations. But the congratulatiooB 
should be on the other side, for I feel like congi'atulating all of you upon tha 
splendid progress which your race has made since emancipation. There is BC 
name, I take it, so near and dear to you as that of the martyred Presideaft 
Abkahasi Lincoln, the emancipator ot your race, and while he has long sinoe 
gone to his reward, and is out of human sight he will live in human memory, 
not simply in the memories of your people, but of all mankind everywhera 
forever more. He was the most splendid type of the true and he- 
roic American. He loved all the race» of men, and no one ever feJt 
abaslied in his presence. One of the most impressive monuments to 
be found in Washington, the Capital City of our country, is a bronze stattte 
to Mr. Lincoln, erected by the men and women of your race. It is on the Eas6 
Side of the great Capitol Building in what is known as Lincoln Park. 
It was conceived, erected and J aid for by people who had been made free by 
the immortal Proclamation, and it should be a matter of pride to you, 
when you know that the first contribution received towards thf .erec- 
tion of that bronze statute was from a colored women of the State of Ohio, 
living in the city of Marietta, who gave the first money she earned as a free 
woman to the erection of tliis splendid monum .t. (Cheers.) It was a proper 
tribute to Mr. Lincoln's great work and r nory. He was ever mindful of 
your race. Long before you were given ' .;» elective franchise, Mr. Lixcotir 
wrote to Michael Hahn, the First Free ^late Governor of Louisiana, that he 
thought the right to vote should be given to the colored men, and 'espocialif 
the very intelligent and those who fought gallantly in our ranks,' and then he 
closed with these beautiful words: 'They would probably help, in some try- 
ing time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of freedom-' 
(Cries of 'Good' and applause.) I thank you, fellow citizens, for this kind, 
friendly call. I know that you love tlie cause and the party with which 
Mr. Lincoln's name will be loi-ever associated. I know you love the greet 

39 



eardinjil principles of the Republican party. (A voice, 'You bet your 
life') and I am very sure you will be found at all times standing for the 
best things in government — that which will secure the greatest good to the 
greatest number." (Applause.) 

A reception was then held, after which three hearty cheers were given for 
Major MoKiNLEY, and a strong and characteristic address was made by Judge 
George E. Baldwin, of Canton. Following Judge Baldwin, Hon. Robert 
A. PiNN, the eloquent colored lawyer of Massillon, delivered a short address. 



A BUGLE CALL TO THE NATION. 

The call made upon Major McKinley by the Thirty-Second Ward Foraker 
Club, of Cleveland, on Saturday, July 11th, was a signal success, .and the Forest 
City visitors enjoyed it immensely. They came at 4:15 o'clock via the C, 

C. and S. Raih-oad, and headed by Kirk's Military Band and the Canton Troop, 
proceeded immediately to the McKinley residence. At the house the 
band played the "Star Spangled Banner," and Major McKinley's appearance 
was the signal for a hearty cheer. As he stepped to the front of the porch, 

D. H. Lucas, President of the Club, delivered a spirited address to him, which 
was frequently applauded. He said : 

"Major McKinley and Friends: The members of the Thirty-Second Ward 
Foraker Club, of Cleveland; have assumed the privilege of coming to Canton 
to show our appreciation of the result at St. Louis, and to extend our sincere 
eongi'atulations. We stand firmly by the Republican party and its principles. 
We have been with you at the State Convention and in the National Conven- 
tion, we have always loved to follow you, and will put our armor on and 
stand more strongly by you during this campaign than ever." (Applause.) 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

When Mr. Lucas concluded, Major McKinley stepped upon a chair to 
respond. He was greeted with a storm of applause and as the address pro- 
ceeded each point was loudly cheered from beginning to end. He said : 

"Mr. Pkesidext, Ladies and Gentlemen: It gives me great pleasure to 
welcome you to this city and to my home, for I highly appreciate the honor 
and compliment of this call. I thank you for your congi-atulations, and the 
assurances of support you offer for the great principles forwhich the Republican 
party stands this year. (Applause.) I congratulate you, in turn, upon having 
chosen for your name the name of one of the most distinguished leaders of our 
party and country, Joseph B. Foraker, of Ohio. (Applause.) Recent events 
have imposed upon patriotic people a responsibility and duty greater than any 
they have known since the Civil AVar. Then it was a struggle to preserve the 
Government of the United States ; now it is a struggle to preserve the 
financial honor of the Government of the United States. (Cries of 'Yes,' 
and applause.) Then it was a contest to save the Union; now it is a contest 
to save spotless its credit. (Great applause.) Then section was arrayed 
against section ; now men of all sections can unite, and will unite, to rebuke 
the repudiation of our obligations and the debasement of our currency. 
(Applause.) In this contest patriotism is above party, and National honor 
dearer than any party name. The currency and credit of the Government are 

40 



good now and must be kept good forever. Our trouble is not with the char- 
acter of the money that we have, but with the threat to debase it. "We have 
the same currency that we had in 1892 — good the world over and unquestioned 
by any people. Then, too, we had unexampled credit and prosperity. Our 
difficulty now is to get that money into circulation and invested in productive 
enterprises which furnish employment to American labor. (Great applause.) 
This is impossible with the distrust that hangs over the country at the present 
time, and every effort to make our dollars, or any one of them worth less than 
one hundred cents each only serves to increase that distrust. "What we want 
is a sound policy, financial and industrial, which will give courage and confi- 
dence to all, for when that is secured the money now unemployed because of 
fear for the future, and lack of confidence in investment, will quickly appear 
in the channel of trade. (Cries of 'You're right. Major,' and applause.) 
The employment of our idle money, the idle money that we already have, in 
gainful pursuits, will put every idle man in tlie country at work, and when there 
is work there is wages, and when there is work and wages there are consumers at 
home, who constitute the best market for the products of our soil. (Great 
applause.) Having destroyed business and confidence by a free trade policy, 
it is now proposed to make things still worse by entering upon an era of 
•depreciated currency. Not content vrith the inauguration of the ruinous 
policy which has brought down the wages of the laborer and the price of farm 
products, its advocates now offer a new policy which will diminish the value 
of the money in which wages and products are paid. (Applause.) Against 
both policies we stand opposed. Our creed embraces an honest dollar, an 
untarnished National credit, adequate revenues for the use of the Government 
protection to labor and enterprise, preservation of the home market, and a 
reciprocity that will extend our foreign markets. Upon this platform we 
stand and submit its declarations to the sober and considerate judgment of 
the American people. (Great applause.) I thank you again, my fellow citi- 
zens, for this call and greeting, and it will give me very great pleasure, ladies 
and gentlemen, to meet you all personally." (Applause.) 

LINCOLN SENDS GREETING. 

Major McKiNLEY received on Tuesday morning, July 14th, the following 
cheering message from one of the strongest Republican organizations in the 
State of Nebraska. His mail, too, contained many similar greetings from 
prominent men in all sections of the State : 

LixcoLx, Nebraska, July 13, 1896. 

"I am instructed to send you the following message: The Young Men's 
Republican Club, stronger in membership and influence than ever before 
during its nine years existence, in meeting assembled, again sends greeting to 
"William McKixley, of Ohio, and assure him that in the coming contest the 
fact that our fellow townsman, "William J. Bryan, is the Democratic nominee 
will only make our organization more enthusiastic and determined than ever 
in behalf of the Republican party and its candidates. This county will cast 
an immense majority for Major IMcKinley. "We have been in battle array in 
this State against Populism until fighting vagaries, such as the Chicago 
platform, has become the accustomed tiling. Situated as we are in the disput- 
ed territory, we welcume the conflict and are firm in our conviction that 
victory will not come to Mr. Bryan in either this Nation, State, or County. 

[Signed] John B. Cunningham President 

41 



THE WOMEN OF CLEVELAND AND NORTHERN OHIO. 

Rain interfered with, but did not set aside the plans of the women of 
Cleveland and Northern Ohio, who had determined to visit Canton and extend 
their congratulations and best wishes to Major McKinley. Their special train 
pulled into the C, C. and S. depot shortly after noon, Wednesday, July 15th, 
a little behind time, but the six hundred people which filled the eight coaches 
found awaiting them a detachment of the Canton Trooj), a committee of the 
Canton Sorosis, and a large number of other Canton people. In a short time 
a parade was organized and on the way to the McKinley honae. The horsemen 
led and the Woman's Band, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, followed. The populace of 
thf^ city turned out en masse to witness the unique parade, and it was a 
matter of general comment that the gay and varied costumes of the ladies 
produced a much finer effect than had the best efforts of the men, with all 
their campaign regalia. When the McKinley home was reached, except as to- 
the personnel of the crowd, there was little distinction between this visit and 
that of the scores of other delegations who have come to Canton to greet the 
Republican nominee for President. The spokesman of this delegation enjoys- 
a distinction shared by few other women in Ohio. She is a member of the 
Cleveland Board of Education, and was regularly elected as the nominee of 
the Republican party — Mrs. Elroy M. Avery, whose husband is prominent 
as a Republican member of the Ohio Senate. Her address, which was most 
enthusiastically received, was as follows: 

"Major McKinley: We come from Cleveland, Cleveland, the beautiful. 
Cleveland that still lives, the Queen City of the Lower Lakes, the great heart 
of the Western Reserve, that gave Giddings, Wade and Garfield to the Na- 
tion ; a city of great American industries that are suffering from un-American 
legislation ; an unfortified city on the border, facing the Canadian shore, but 
recognizing that our best protection against foreign aggression is a protective 
tariff. Coming from a city of a hundred years to-day, we turn aside from our 
Centennial to do homage to the man who best represents the great American 
idea, under the fostering care of which we hope Cleveland will gloriously 
flourish and bravely celebrate her second hundredth year. We come to greet 
you, not as politicians, but as women, wives, mothers and sisters. We can 
not cast one vote for you, and yet we love our country, 

"The mighty mother of a mighty brood.' ♦ 

Our country, that ' lifts up the manhood ' of the -nations of the earth — and we 
desire and through you we seek, her prosperity and glory. We believe in the 
highest destiny for this American nation to which we belong; we may not 
fully appreeiate man-made political platforms ; but we better understand the 
significance of current events than some folks give us credit for; we know 
that when you enter at the door of the White House, peace and comfort 
will enter at our doors ; that when you receive your heritage by the decree of a 
grateful people, our husbands and fathers will receive the fruits of their in- 
dustry, and the heart of the wife and mother will be made glad. When the 
husband lacks work, the wife knows and feels it, though she will still cheei 
:ind comfort; when the factory fires are out, the fire in the hearth burns low; 
w hen the spindles cease to turn, poverty and hunger stalk through the streets 
liy day ; when tb anvil no longer rings, misery and wailing brood in the home 
by night. Wh xiall say that woman has no interest in your success ? Every 
woman has d< living interest in the money question. If our husbands earn t\\& 

42 



money, we spend and intend to spend it. WitLout pleading guilty to the charge 
of a weakness for the bargain counter, every thrifty woman wants her few dol. 
krs to have as great a purchasing power as possible, to be worth a hundred 
eents, act fifty, to be convertible into twenty pounds of sugar, not ten. We 
stand ready to welcome every one who refuses to dwell longer in the tents of 
the opposition, and to bind up the wounds of every one, who breaking loose 
from the already disintegrating ranks of the opposition, and placing patriotism 
above party, pledges his support to the "Advance Agent of Prosperity." 
Each recruit will find the silver lining of his cloud fringed with the higher 
glory of the morning's golden glow and be lulled to peaceful rest by the melo- 
dious chant of our political household. Descended from Revolutionary stock, 
and from those who were 

'Prompt to assert by manners, A'oice and pen, 
Or ruder arms, their rights as Englishmen,' 

you stand before the Nation and the world, as a typical American, 

'With the stern high-featured beauty 
Of plain devoteduess to duty.' 

He who represents our Nation to the world should be an unblemished gentle- 
man. As a soldier, brave and faithful in days of war, we bring you our gar- 
lands of honor; as a statesman, wise and just, we bring you our cordial greet- 
ing; as a son and husband, we bring you our grateful homage. Among men 
your name stands as a synonym for protection to American industry ; it stands 
for sound money and reciprocity, and freedom, too, from ocean to ocean. 
Among women it stands for more than that. It stands for protection for the 
home, it stands for right-thinking and right living; it stands for tenderness to 
mother and for love to wife, for all that makes the American home the dearest 
spot on earth, the footprint of God. In honoring your mother and your wife 
you have honored womankind. You are very dear to Ohio, but Ohio gives you 
to the Nation ; henceforth you belong to the whole people. Through you, as 
we devoutly hope and fervently pray, the Almighty will work out for us a 
glorious destiny, clothing our sons and daughters with prosperity and honor, 
and making America the beacon star for all the nations of the earth. The 
prayers and blessings of the women of the Western Reserve go with you as 
you go forth on that high mission." (Great applause.) 



riajor McKinley's Response. 

Major McKiNLEY was greeted by the waving of handkerchiefs and cheers 
from hundreds of feminine voices. He spoke as follows: 

"Mrs. Avery AND Women of Cleveland and Northerx Ohio: I greatly 
appreciate this friendly call, and assure you that I do not undervalue the 
gracious message of congratulation and confidence which you have so eloquently 
delivered. It is an assurance of the deep interest which you feel, and which 
should be felt by every family in the land, in the public questions of the day 
and their rightful settlement at the polls. There is no limitation to the influ- 
ence that may be exerted by woman in the United States, and no adequate 
tribute can be paid to her service to mankind throughout its eventful history. 
At the distance period of its settlement, in the days of the Revolution, in the 
trials of Western pioneer life, during the more recent but dread days of our 
Civil War — indeed, at every step of our progress as a Nation, the devotion 

43 



and sacrifices of women were constantly api)aront and often conspicuous. 
{Applause.) She was everywhere appreciated and recognized, though God 
alone could place her service at its true value. The w-ork of woman has been 
a power in every emergency and always for good. In calamity and distress she 
has ever been helpful and heroic; not only have some of the brightest pages 
of GUI' National history been illumined by her splendid example and noble 
efforts for the public good, but her influence in the home, the church, the school 
and the community in moulding character for every profession and duty to 
which our race is called has been potential and sublime. But it is in the peaceful 
walks of life where her powder is greatest and most beneficial. One of the 
tenderest passages to me in the works of John Stuart Mili^ beautifully 
expresses this thought. It is recorded in his Autobiography, when he paused 
to pay high and deserved tribute to his wife, of whom he could not say too 
much. He says : 'She was not only the author of many of the best things I did, 
but she inspired every good thing I did.' Many men there are from whom 
frankness would not withhold, but would command, like expression of obliga- 
tion to woman, wife, mother, sister, or friend. (Great applause.) One of the 
best things of our civilization in America is the constant advancement of woman 
to a higher plane of labor and responsibility. The opportunities for her are 
greater now than ever before. This is singularly true here in the United 
States, where practically every avenue of human endeavor is open to her. 
Her impress is felt in art, science, literature, song, and government. Our 
churches, our schools, our charities, our professions, and our general 
business interests are more than ever each year directed by her. Respect for 
womankind has become with us a National characteristic ; and what a high, 
•noble, manly trait it is — none nobler, or holier ! It stamps the true gentleman ; 
the man who loves wife, mother and home will respect and reverence all 
womankind, and he is always the better citizen for such gentle breeding. The 
home over which the trusted wife presides is the citadel of our strength, the 
best guarantee of good citizenship and sound morals in government. It is at 
the foundation — upon it all else is constructed. From the plain American 
home 'where virtue dwells and truth hath her abiding place,' go forth the men 
and w^omen wiio make the great States and cities which adorn our Republic, 
w}\ich maintain law and order — that citizenship wliich aims only at the 
•public welfare, the common good of all. Some one has said that 

'Women mould the future as mothers, 
And govern the present as wives.' 

i congratulate you upon what w'oman has done for grand and noble objects 
in the past, and I rejoice with you at the wider and broader field of the present, 
and the splendid vista of the future everywhere opening for you. I again 
thank you for your presence here and for this manifestation of regard and good 
will. Mrs. McKiNLEY and I wiU be happy to meet and greet you all." (Great 
applause.) 

The hymn composed for the occasion by Mrs. N. Coe Stewart, was then 
fiung; Mrs. Mary Ellsworth Clark, of Cleveland, as solo, in a rich voice 
leading the chorus, and the AVoman's Band playing the accompaniment. The 
words of the hymn are as follows : 

A PRAYER FOR THE NATION. 

Ring out bells of freedom, ring long and ring loud, 
The sunshine is piercing the dark, threat'uing cloud; 
'Tis bright'ning the stars on Old Glory unfurled, 
Which speaks like a god to a wondering world, 
» 

44 



The brave toiling millions who bend to the yoke, 
Whose sweat drops are prayers, though a word be not spoke. 
Are swelling the chorus which sweeps to the sea — 
McKinley, McKlnley, our Captain shall be." 

CHORUS : 

God keep him, the true and the brave. 
Our beautiful country to save ; 
Bends low a great Nation to crave 
This boon at Thy hand. 

" McKinley, McKinley," the children all shout, 
The star-begemmed banner he fought for fling out: 
The home shall be sacred, its walls firmly stand. 
When honor and manhood rule proudly the land. 

McKinley, McKinley, the world waits for thee. 
Humanity pleads with the land of the free. 
That God in great mercy will keep thee to stand, 
A rock of defense in our glorious land. 

Flowers for firs. McKinley. 

Miss BiRDELLE SwiTZER, Society Editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 
then stepped forward, and handed Mrs. McKinley a large basket of roses, a 
present from the young ladies in the party. In presenting the flowers, she 
said: 

"Mrs. McKinley: I bring you in behalf of the young women of Cleveland 
a basket of roses. These American Beauties represent the queen of flowers, as 
you, by your sweet womanliness and grace, have won the right to represent 
the American queen of the home. These white blossoms are a symbol of that 
pure spirit we have learned to reverence, and this blue, the truth that is 
mirrored in your eyes, has caused the heart of your husband to trust in you. 
We can not all hope to win Presidents for husbands, but your example as a wife 
is before us, and following that, we can at least aid our future companions to 
be worthy men. If each beautiful thought your countrywomen have in mind 
for you were a rose, the streets of Canton would be filled to overflowing with 
a fragrant tribute, whose odor would forever linger in your memory. Allow 

me, 

■ 'Sweets to the sweet." 

Mrs. McKinley acknowledged the gift with a smile and a bow. Major 
McKinley was also given a box of artificial flowers sent him by Miss Teressa 
DoTTERWiCK, of Cleveland, who has been confined to her bed for six years, but 
desired to make something for the next President. An informal reception 
concluded the exercises. Major McKinley shook hands with the ladies, and 
after a few words with Mrs. McKinley, they passed happily along to the 
Tabernacle where a lunch was served in their honor by the hospitable people 
of Canton. 

CO;VlRADES FROn CLEVELAND. 

The visit of the Cuyahoga Country Soldiers and Sailors Union to Major 
McKiNLEYonThursday afternoon, July 16th, was one of the most notable and 
impressive calls he has received since his nomination for President. The 
Cleveland, Terminal and Valley train bringing the party to Canton arrived 
about 3:30 o'clock. Canton Troop was in waiting as were also two hundred 
Canton veterans from George D. Harter and Canton Posts. The local G. A. R. 
acted as escorts and preceded by the horsemen led the procession. The 

45 



Cleveland delegation, headed by Fay's Military Band, numbering about three 
hundred, was in charge of Commander Hugh Buckley, Jr., with J. C. Shields, 
Captain of the famous Nineteenth Ohio Battery, Marshal of the parade. When 
Major McKiNLEY appeared upon the porch, cheer after cheer greeted him, and 
it was several minutes before order was restored. Commander Buckley tlien 
said : "Major McKinley : We have come here to tender to you the right hand 
of comradeship, and to congratulate you upon your nomination as the standard 
bearer of the Republican party." (Applause.) He then introduced Hon. 
William T. Clark, State Senator from Cleveland, who presided at the meeting 
and introduced the other speakers, and who spolce as follows: 

"Major McKinley: Your comrades of Cuyahoga County greet you as a 
comrade during the four years of civil strife from 1S61 to 1865. The sweetest 
words to a comrade are the expressions of friendship and appreciation from 
those with whom he fought for the maintenance of the flag. Now let us give 
three cheers again for Major McKinley" — and they were given with a will. 

Rev. George AY. Pepper, ex-Consul to Milan, was then introduced and spoke 
AS follows : "Major McKinley : There was a time in Athens when there was pro- 
found silence, and strangers visiting the city asked the reason, and they were told 
that Demosthenes was speaking in the assembly of the people. So at this hour 
there is but one name spoken with admiration throughout this great Nation. 
It is the magic name of the soldier, the patriot, the Christian gentleman, 
William McKinley. It is not only mentioned with aflfection here in his be- 
loved home, but everywhere throughout the Republic, from the valley of the 
Sacramento, in the golden gorges of the Uba, in the cities and hamlets of the 
South, by our lakes and rivers, upon the summits of our tallest mountains, and 
in the depth of our deepest valleys — wherever there is an American heart it 
thrills at the remembrance of your intrepid and splendid services to rescue 
from the gi-asp of foreign competition the productive industries of the United 
States, and to secure for millions heaven's greatest gift to man, liberty divine. 
As your fellow soldiers we come to pay our tribute of love and admiration. 
We honor you because in the dark and dreary hours of the rebellion your 
musket as well as your voice Avas on the side of union and liberty. We honor 
you, that throughout that tremendous contest when our majestic banner 
wavered in the breeze you never faltered. We honor you for your devotion ; 
for the courage with which you met the hosts of rebellion and braved 
the vengeance of your country's enemies. We "salute you, illustrious sir, and 
hail you as the first citizen of the Republic. We love you because the unpar- 
alleled and matchless Blaine bequeathed to you his mantle. AVe tender you 
thanks and cheers not only for your soldiery courage, but also for your valiant 
defense of American interests. Your coming triumph rings like blessed music 
— the silver bell of freedom and prosperity will once more j)eal through the 
Nation, another pillar and crown of gold wiU be added to your escutcheon. I 
have said that your name is known and honored everywhere. I have heai-d it 
abroad where a cloudless sky bends over the faded splendors of Italy. AA'hen 
the tremendous majority of your last election was cabled over the ocean the 
Italian servant rushed up to the office of the Consul and said: "I know who 
is to be the next Consul when you leave. "'AA^ho is it?l' I asked. "His namo 
is AViLLiAM McKinley." She only meant, however, that he was to be the next- 
President and I was to be returned by him. (Laughter.) My remarks would 
be incomplete if I did not refer to the presence of these noble ladies, whose en- 
thusiastic devotion to their illustrious townsman warrants me to close 
with this toast: May the United States rise up clothed in radiant health and 

46 



jSLCred powet, and solemnize, with prosperity, Plenty and Eternal Tnion ; and 
may these ladies, whose health I now propose, live to be bridesmaids at that 
festival of love and fortune when our comrade William MoKinley in inaugurated 
President of the United States." (Hearty applause.) 

Captain E. L, Patterson was the third speaker, and said: 
"Major McKiNLEY, Comrades of Cuyahoga and Stark Counties : The men 
who fought to sustain the Union have great affection for each other. There 
are no stronger ties to bind men together. We know that the best interests of 
America will be taken care of, and the industries whereby we get our bread 
will not be lost sight of, under an administration with William McKinley at 
its head. For the sake of America, we pray that we may again greet you 
on a more splendid occasion on March 4th next." (Cheers.) 
Comrade C. C. Dewstoe was introduced and said: 

"Major McKinley: The Chairman has introduced me and in doing so he 
referred to the times when we all stood side by side to preserve the Union 
saying that we are growing gray and a little stiff through the passing years. 
We may be getting gray, but we are able to lick Bryanism this year, just the 
same, (Laughter.) We have come here to pay our tribute to a true American 
citizen. You have, sir, the respect and esteem of your comrades, wb honor 
you as our highest ideal of citizenship, in time of war and in time of peace. We 
recognize in you a champion of a mighty cause, the protection and welfare 
of our homes. You have the love, respect, admiration and approval of your 
old comrades." (Cheers.) 

Captain Bohm, of the Seventh 0. V. I., on being introduced, said: 
"Major McKinley, This is a day which I have looked forward to with 
pleasure for three years. I am not a prophet, nor the son of a porphet, but 
watching the political situation, I have believed that our old comrade under 
the flag would be chosen to lead the hosts of Eepublicanism to victory this 
year. The motto vent, vidi, •cici, is sure to apply to the Republican party this 
campaign. Comrades of Cleveland and Canton, let us pray with all the 
strength of our hearts that the comrade who went with us through the war 
may lead us to prosperity . May a kind Providence watch and guide him in the 
future as in the past. May he be the man of the people, for the people and 
loved by the people for all time . " (Great applause. ) 

Major William J. Gleason, of Cleveland, formerly a prominent Democrat, 
and a gallant veteran, closed the remarks in an apt address, as follows : 

"Major McKinley: It was my fate to be born on foreign soil, but never- 
theless America is my home and the country I love. Loving America I love 
protection for America, and above all the champion of protection, Major 
William McKinley. In our city we have a society against smoke. But if the 
policy of the party in power continues I don't believe there will be much 
trouble from smoke. (Laughter.) The party of retrogression proposes to give 
us a young man with a fifty cent dollar to get us out of trouble, but we want 
neither. We are not here as politicians to-day, but as American citizens. 
We hope and pray that Major McKinley, the grand American citizen and able 
statesman, will be the next President of the United States." (Applause.) 



47 



Major McKinley's Response. 

As Major McKinley stepped upon a chair, the old boys in blue went 
wild with enthusiasm, cheering as only soldiers know how to cheer for several 
minutes. After silence was secured. Major McKinley spoke as follows: 

"My Comkades and Fellow Citizens: I respond to your call with special 
gratification ; nothing gives me greater pleasure than to meet at my home my 
comrades of the Civil War. The ties of fraternity and friendship grow stronger 
and dearer as the years recede, and the Old Guard one by one, is called home. 
Your presence revives many patriotic memories; it recalls many stiring and 
glorious events. How vividly they rise before us, and what an inspiration for 
the right they always are ! To have been a faithful soldier of the Union is no 
less z source of joy in your advancing years and infirmities, than a precious 
legacy for family and friends. It blesses him who gives and enriches him who 
receives. It is a record of patriotism and service in the severest trials of our 
history. (Applause.) We all know something of what that war meant and 
what it cost ; what sacrifice it enacted and for what a holy cause the sacrifice 
was freely given. Treasure illimitable, suffering indiscribable, and death 
beyond previous record or comparison. By far the larger number of our old 
comrades of the Grand Army are sleeping *in their silent tents' beyond the 
River. But although death has decimated our ranks it is a consoling reflection 
that more than a million of our comrades still survive. It is a gratifying 
thought, too, that those who served their country so faithfully in war have always 
been among our best and truest citizens in peace. It is the living present, 
however, and its duties and responsibilities, in which every old soldier is now as 
always most interested. (Applause.) Each new engagement of the war brought 
its own peculiar trials and perils to face and bravely overcome. The devotion 
to discipline and duty which distinguished them then has kept the old soldiers 
true and steady ever since. (Applause.) They have not faltered and will not 
falter now. There has been no time since they laid down their arms when 
we had greater need for patriotic men than now, and the response to the crisis 
of the hour will come from all sections of our common country. (Great 
applause.) We have reached a point in our history when all men who love 
their country must unite to defeat by their ballots the forces which now assault 
the Nation's honor. The war has been over thirty-one years and as a result 
we have a reunited country, a Union stronger and freer, a civilization higher 
and nobler, a freedom broader and more enduring, and a flag more glorious and 
sacred than ever before, and all of them safe from any enemy, at home or 
abroad, because the men who a third of a century ago fought in deadly conflict 
unite now in their masterful might to oppose any enemy who would assail 
either freedom. Union, or flag. (Cheers.) The struggle which is now upon us 
involving National good faith and honor will enlist their united and earnest 
service until those who are arrayed against the fair fame and name of the 
Republic shall be routed and dispersed. Its glories are the common heritage- 
of us all. What was won in the great conflict belongs just as sacredly to those- 
who lost as to those who triumphed. You meet to-day not as soldiers, but as- 
citizens, interested now in maintaining the credit of the country you served sO' 
well, and in restoring prosperity and better times to our goodly heritage. The 
future is the sacred trust of all, South as well as North. Honesty, like pa- 
triotism, can neither be bounded by State nor sectional lines. (Great applause.) 
Financial dishonor is the threatened danger now, and good men will obliterate 
old lines of party in a united effort to uphold American credit and honor. This- 

48 



you have always done, and we must all ever strive to keep the Union worthy 
of the brave men who sacrificed, suffered and died for it. I will be glad, m; 
comrades, to meet you all personally." (Loud cheering and applause. ) 

At ths conclusion of the address, and the demonstration that followed, a 
informal reception was held. The old veterans filed up to the porch, an 
extended the hand of fellowship — and some of them only had one hand to givt; 
They were all happy with the bright inspirations of the visit, which came te 
an end, all too soon, at six o'clock. 



A CONTEST FOR PRINCIPLE. 

Among the messages received by Major McKinlky, Monday morning, June 
20th, was a letter from the Young Men's Republican Club of Omaha, Nebraska, 
saying: 

"To the Hon. William McKinley, Canton, Ohio. The Young Men's 
Republican Club of Omaha, sends greeting to the standard beai'er of the 
Republican party, and gives him assurance that the nomination of a citizen ol 
Nebraska, by the Democratic National Convention will in no wise affect the 
enthusiasm and the loyalty of the young Republicans of Omaha. This la a. 
contest of principles, and in this contest we shall fight for the triumph d 
William McKinley, who stands for National honor and National prosperitj- 

Charles E. Winter, Tresident. 
James A. Beck, Secretary. 



ENTHUSIASTIC, ACTIVE AND CONFIDENT. 

Also the following: 

York, Nebraska, July 20, 1896. 

"Hon. William McKinley, Canton, Ohio: Notwithstanding Nebraska k 
the center of the Populistic maelsti*om, Republicans are enthusiastic, active, 
and confident. York has a McKinley Club of 525 members, which includes lOf 
old soldiers. The Club sends its compliments to its great leader, the nexr! 
President of the United States. Nebraska Republicans are not alarmed nor in- 
timidated ; they have fearlessly faced and combatted Populistic vagaries feu 

six years. 

N. V. Harlan, President. 



FOUNDERS' DAY IN THE FOREST CITY. 

Major McKinley left Canton on July 22nd for the first time since his nomi- 
nation for President. He went to Cleveland to attend the opening eserciset 
of the Cleveland Centennial Celebration on Founders' Day, or the hundredth 
anniversary of the city's first settlement. His appearance in the city created 
the greatest enthusiasm, and as he passed along the line of the great parade, 
which was witnessed by fully 250,000 people, there were constant demonstra- 
tions in his honor. His address on this occasion was as follows : 

49 



Major flcKinley's Response. 

"Mr. President and My Fellow Citizens : ' The people of Cleveland do 
well to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of their gi-eat and beautiful city. 
Its original buildei-s are long since gone, and their mighty struggles are pass- 
ing from individual recollections into the field of tradition and history. Anni- 
versaries like this increases our pride for the men who wrought so excellently, 
despite tlieir trials and hardships, from which the present generation would 
intuitively shrink. They recall to our minds the high character and courage, 
the lofty aims and gi-oat sacrifices of our sturdy ancestors, and inspire us to 
revere their memories and imitate the virtues. Tlie thoughtful observance 
of an anniversary like this, therefore, does all who are associated with it, or 
who come within its influence, positive good. It unfolds the past and enlight- 
ens the present, and by emphasizing the value of the ties of family, home and 
covmtry, it encourages civic pride and appeals to the highest and best senti- 
ments of our hearts and lives. We have brought to our minds the picture of 
the beginning and the little we then possessed, in vived contrast with the 
much that has been acquired and accomplished since. And if the lesson is 
rightly learned, it suggests to all of us how much we have to do to contribute 
our share to the progress and civilization of the future. It is a counting of the 
sheaves garnered in the harvest of the past, and a stimulous to higher 
endeavor in the future. A hundred years of effort and sacrifice, of skill and 
activity, of industry and economy are placed before our eyes. To-day the 
present generation pays its homage to Cleveland's founders, and offers in 
her own proud strength and beauty a generous and unqualified testimonial 
to their wisdom and work. (Applause.) The statistics of the population 
of Cleveland, and of her growth, production and wealth, do not and can 
not tell the story of her greatness. We have been listening to the interesting 
and eloquent words of historian, poet and orator, graphically describing her rise 
from obscurity to prominence. They have woven into perfect and pleasing 
narrative the truthful and yet well established record of her advancement 
from an unknown frontier settlement in the Western wilderness to the proud 
rankof eleventh city in the United States, the grandest country in the world. 
^Applause.)- We have heard with just pride, so marvelous has been her pro- 
gress, that among the greatest cities on the earth only sixty-two now out- 
rank Cleveland in population. (Applause.) Her life is as one century to 
twenty compared with son*e of that number, yet her civilization is as far ad- 
vanced as the proudest metropolis in the world. (Applause.) In point of 
government, education, morals, and business thrift and enterprise, Cleveland 
jnaywellclaimrecognition with the foremost, and is fairly entitled to warm 
congratulations and high eulogy on this her Centennial Day. Nor will any 
envy her people a season of self gratulation and rejoicing. You inaugurate 
to-day a centennial celebration in honor of your successful past, and its be- 
ginning is with singular appropriateness, called Founders' Day. We have 
heard with interest, the description of the commercial importance of this 
city, a port on a chain of lakes whose tonnage and commerce surpass those of 
any other sea or ocean on the globe. AVe realize the excellence and superior- 
ity of the gi-eat railroad systems which center in Cleveland. We marvel at the 
volume and variety of your numerous manufactories, and see about us, on every 
hand, the pleasant evidence of your comfort and culture, not only in your beau- 
tiful and hospital hnmes, but in your churches, schools, charities, factories, 
business houses, streets and viaducts, public parks, statues and monuments— 

50 



indeed, in your conveniences, adornments and improvements of every sort, we 
behold all the advantages and blessings of the model, modern city, worthy to 
be both the pride of a great State and much grander Nation. (Great ap- 
plause.) This is the accomplishment of a century. Who wrought it — who 
made all this possible? "Whence came they, and what manner of men and 
women were they to undertake to reclaim the wilderness from its primeval 
savagery? Such are the questions that come instinctively to our lips. We are 
told that tlie ox'iginal band of fifty pioneers, under the leadership of Moses 
Cleveland, arrived at t^e mouth of the Cuyahoga on July 22, 1796, and that 
they ascended the bank and beheld the beautiful plain, covered with luxuriant 
forests, which they properly defined as 'a splendid site for a city.' Perhaps the 
historian can remember the names of a dozen, or discover among us as many of 
their immediate descendants as there were original settlers, but whetiier we 
can call them all or any of them by name, or not, this we do know — they were 
men of pure lives, nobly consecrated to the good of the community. Sober, 
serious, even stern and austere they may have been, but grand was their mission 
and well did they accomplish it. (Applause.) They planted here in the wilder- 
ness, upon firm and enduring foundations, the institutions of free government. 
(Applause,) They recognized and enforced the glorious doctrines and i^riceless 
privileges of civil and religious liberty, of law and order, of the rights, dignity 
and independence of labor, of the rights of property, and of the inviolability 
of public faith and honor. (Applause.) Never were any men more zealous in 
patriotic devotion to free government and the Union of the States. On their 
long and toilsome journey from their Connecticut homes they did not forget 
tlie Fourth of July, and, though in sad straits, they celebi'ated it with thank- 
fulness and joy, and unfurled to the breeze our glorious old flag, with its 
thirteen stars and stripes, on the Nation's natal day, on its now far distant twen- 
tieth anniversary. (Great applause.) They believed not only in the Declara- 
tion of Independence, but in the Constitution which gave effect and foi-ce to 
its immortal truths (applause); and no men anywhere struggled more bravely 
to sustain its great principles than some of these very settlers. (Applause.) 
Indeed, the tribute which Washixgtox had paid but a few years before to the 
men who had settled at the mouth of the Miskingum may well be applied to 
the little band that founded the Forest City. 'No colony in America,' said he, 
'was ever settled under such favorable auspices. Information, prosperity, and 
:-ti"ength will be its characteristics. There never were men better calculated 
lo promote the welfare of any community.' They were of the same ancestral 
.-<tock, of like education and training, nnd liad gained a similar high reputation 
for ability and energy. Their ideas of government and of the value and im- 
portance of education were drawn from the same sources, while their religious 
faith and sense of justice were also similar. They may frequently have been 
discouraged, but they were always brave and determined. Their faith was 
sublime. They were of the stock which gave to the world a civilization without 
a parallel in recorded history, and offered to tlie struggling races of naen every- 
where assurances of the realization of their best and highest aspirations. 
(Applause.) They opened the door to the oppressed in every land, and the 
wisdom of their foresight has been abundantly verified by the infusion into our 
society of tliose strong and sturdy foreign elements which have given to the 
Ilepublic so many of its best and patriotic citizens, by whose aid this State 
and city have become so gi-eat. (Applause.) Every step in your advance- 
ment is but the confirmation of the wisdom of the fathers, of their foresight 
smd keen sagacity. (Applause.) Your progress and prosperity is their highest 

51 



«3Stimonial, their most lasting memorial. Crlorious pioneer, he maae and left 
his impress wherever he pitched his camp or raised his cabin ! (Applause.) His 
was the impress of the sturdy manhood that feared God and loved liberty. 
(Applause.) He stands as the representative of a great age and well improved 
opportunity, 'the sturdiest oak in the great forest of man.' (Applause.) 'As 
the peak which first catches the morning light is the grand monarch of the 
hills,' so the sturdy pioneer who struck the first blow for freedom is the grand 
monarch of our civilization. (Great applause.) Let me commend you to his 
precious example. It is richer than titles of royalty. (Applause.) God grant 
that the fires of liberty which he kindled ; that the respect for law and order 
which he inculcated; that the freedom of conscience and religious liberty 
which he taught, and which found expression in the Constitution of the 
United States ; that the public credit and honor which he established *as the 
most important source of our strength and security ;' and that the fervent and 
self-sacrificing devotion to our splendid free institutions, which were ever the 
animating and controlling purposes of his nature, may be as dear to the 
people of this and each succeeding generation as they were to him." (;Great 
and long continued applause.) 



MAJOR McKINLEY AT ALLIANCE. 

The city of Alliance will long remember Thursday, July 23, 1896, as one of 
the notable days in her history. The semi-centennial of Mt. Union College 
attracted a large crowd, and the announcement that Major McKinley would 
attend brought thousands more from all the country round about. He reached 
Alliance from Cleveland on the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad at 9:30 
o'clock, and was taken at once to Mt. Union College. As he entered the hall 
the vast crowd assembled arose, and led by Bishop Vincent, gave him the 
Chautauqua salute. This was followed by a round of cheers, and then Hon, 
Lewis Miller, of Akron, introduced him, and he spoke as follows: 



riajor ricKinley's Response. 

Mb. President, Members op the Faculty and Students op Mt. Union^ 
College, AND My Fellow Citizens: It gives me very great pleasure as your 
neighbor, and as a member of the Board of Trustees of this college to be present 
with you on this your semi-centennial anniversary. This old institution has a 
proud history, and I can not stand in your presence to-day witliout having come 
to my mind and lips names which ai*e familiar to all who know its career. The 
venerable founder of the institution. Dr. E. A. Hartshorn, is on the platform. 
(Applause.) I remember many of his early struggles for the establishment of 
this seat of learning. Some of his associates in the original work are still with 
you, and I do not know anywhere in the world more self-sacrificing and more 
devoted instructors than the former and present faculty of Mt. Union College. 
(Great Applause.) What a splendid work this institution has done ! Every- 
where I go, in every State and Territory of the Union, I find members of the 
Alumni Association of Mt. Union College, and wherever I find them I hear 
them classed as among the best citizens of the communities in wliich they 
reside. (Cheers and applause.) You not only educate men and women here , 

52 



out you give what is more priceless than education — you give character to 
men and women. I have come this morning, violating a rul3 which I had 
established for myself, that I might mingle with you on this joyous day of 
jubilee, your fiftieth anniversary. The value of university education can not be 
overestimated. Its support can not be too generous, nor too earnest, upon the 
part of our people. But, after all, my fellow citizens, the hope of the Re- 
public, its safety and security, and the strength and perpetuity of popular 
government must rest upon the great public school system now happily and 
firmly established throughout the United States. (Great applause. ) Nothing 
can take its place ; and, fortunately, the public school is everywhere becoming 
the vestibule of the university. As the currieulum of the free school is ad- 
vanced the tie between fundamental and higher education is closer and 
stronger, and is more clearly recognized and appreciated. We can not have 
too much education if it be of the right kind ; and if it be rightly applied it is 
of inestimable value to the citizen in every walk and profession of life. 
Young men and women, what your education will be and do for you 
depends upon yourselves. The chief difference in men, in school or out, 
is the amount of work they de. No measure of genius, so called will 
take the place of well directed hard work. It is not so much what is in 
the course of studies at college which does you good, as it is what you master 
there. The mental discipline, and the application of what you learn, is the 
aim of real education. The acquisition of learning is useless unless it is put to 
some wise end in the practical affairs of life. The young man who has 
received only an elementary training is at a disadvantage compared with his 
rival who has received a higher education. This is evident from the ease and 
dexterity with which the one successfully disposes of problems that the other 
wrestles with, perhaps unavailingly, for hours or days at a stretch. The need 
of the times is a thorough education, thorough equipment for life's work ; and 
that man succeeds best who is practical, sensible and broad, who really knows 
the most, has the best stored mind, and knows best how to use it. Do not 
permit college ideals to warp you nor to remove you from active participation 
in the every day affairs of life. You have something to do, every one of you 
in this active world. Fortunately for the United States, the founders of the 
Government clearly foresaw that the perpetuity of our institutions could be 
secured only by making ample provision for popular education. They realized 
far better than we do, that without learning there could be no real liberty, and 
that the one could not be enjoyed without the other. (Applause.) To my 
mind the most wonderful work of the fathers, second only to union and inde- 
pendence, was the broad, wise and enduring provisions they made for public 
instruction. No country in the world is so well provided with educational 
advantages ; no colleges in any other land have bestowed upon them such 
munificent gifts as the educational institutions of the United States. (Ap- 
plause.) By the ordinance of the Congress of the Confederation in 1785, 
Section 16 (a square mile) of every township was reserved for the maintenance 
of public schools. The Ordinance of 1787 confirmed the Ordinance of 1785, and 
declared that 'religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good gov- 
/ernment and the happiness of mankind, schools, and the means of education, 
shall be forever encouraged.' In contemplating this Ordinance I marvel at 
the supreme sagacity of its authors. The people and especially the youth of 
the present day, little cooiprehend the importance and grandeur of this great 
act, as it relates to education alone. It was without precedent or suggestion 
in the previous legislation of mankind. Even its framers could have but 

53 



-intly conceived the inmiensity of the domain and the value of the boon they 
>vere conferring upon posterity. It is Muthout parallel among the great acts of 
patriotism which the grand men of that age were constantly performing. 
Priceless heritage to American youth, it has exerted an influence mostbenigni 
upon every State since organized ! Especially the great States of the North- 
west, whose school systems and schools are to-day probably the best in the 
world. (Applause.) In them is found the most perfect union between the 
elementary and advanced schools, from the kindergarten to the university, 
ever known or attempted by any country, with abundant means for the sup- 
port of all from the lowest to the highest. The total amount of money 
realized from this munificent grant can not be accurately stated, but enough. 
is known to warrant the estimate that it is now not less than one hundred 
million dollars. In referring to this great Ordinance I love to recall the words 
of Webster. They can not be repeated too frequently, nor become too 
familiar to the pupils of this and of every generation. You will remember 
that he said: 'We are accustomed to praise the lawgivers of antiquity, we 
help to perpetuate the fame of Solon and Lycurgus, but I doubt whether one 
single law of any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of a more 
distinct, marked and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787. AVe see its 
consequences at this moment, and we shall never cease to see them, perhaps, 
while the Ohio shall flow. It fixed forever the character of the population in 
the vast region northwest of the Ohio.' The spirit of this Ordinance found 
lodgment in the Constitution, and the words and acts of the father can not 
fail to instruct and inspired the people of every age in American history. 
Enlightened citizenship was to the fathers the gi*eat essential to every State 
and community. W.\shington, in his Farewell Address, gave utterance to these 
wise admonitions, which are as applicable to the people of to-day as they were 
to the people of the Revolutionary period. He said: 'Promote, as an object 
of primary importance, institutions for the general diffussion of knowledge. 
In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it 
is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.' We must not forget 
that one great aim and object of education is to elevate the standard of 
citizenship. The uplifting of our schools will undoubtedly result in a higher 
and better tone in business and professional life. Old methods and standards 
may be good, but they must advance with the new problems and needs of the 
age. This age demands an education which, while not depreciating in 
any degree the inestimable advantage of high intellectual culture, shall best 
fit the man and woman for his or her calling, whatever it may be. Character is 
the foundation upon which we must build if our institutions are to endure. 
Our obligations for the splendid advantages we enjoy should not rest upon us 
too lightly. We owe to our country much. We must give in return for these 
matchless educational opportunities tlie best results in our lives. (Applause.) 
We must make our citizenship worthy the great Republic, intelligent, jxatriotic, 
and self-sacrificing, or our institutions will fail of their high purpose, and our 
civilization will inevitably decline. Our hope is in good education and good 
morals. Let us fervently pray that our educational institutions may always be 
generously supported, and that those who go out from these halls will be 
themselves the best witnesses of their force and virtue in popular government.'* 
(Great applause.) 



M 



SPEECH ON THE CAHPUS. 

But the crowd assembled was far in excess of the capacity of tlie hall. Tho«8 
who could not gain admission waited outside to greet Major McKinlkt^ 
the guest of honor of the day. His appearance was the signal for an outburst 
of applause, and the great throng began to call for a speech. The distinguished 
guest smilingly demurred until the outcry was so gi-eat that he was obliged Co 
raise his hand for silence and thank them for their kind reception — speaking as 
follows : 

"My Fellow CmzENs: I am very glad indeed to have the pleasure of 
meeting my old friends and constituents of Stark, Columbiana and Mahoning 
Counties. I am glad to know that 1896 is to be a year of patriotism and dedi- 
cation to the country. (Applause.) I am glad to know that the people all over 
the country this year mean to be devoted to one flag, and that the glorious oM 
Stars and Stripes (applause) ; that the people this year mean to maintain the 
financial honor of the Nation as sacredly as they would maintain the honor of 
the Ijag. (Ceering and applause.) lam glad to meet and greet you all this 
morning, and I would be pleased to talk longer to you, but for an engagement 
which takes me to Cleveland. I thank you all and bid you good-bye." "Great 
applause.) 

TO ALLIANCE WORKINQMEN. 

At the Alliance station, where his train was surrounded by the employes of 
the Morgan Engineering Company, the Steel Works, and hundreds of other 
citizens, Major McKixley spoke as follows: 

"My Fellow Citizens: I am very grateful for this unexpected call and 
greeting. For more than a quarter of a century I have been in the habit of 
coming to the city of Alliance, meeting her people and conferring with them 
touching public questions of great individual and National concern. I am here 
to-day to attend the fiftieth anniversary of Mt. Union College, and I onlf 
appear now that I may acknowledge the kind welcome which you have so gen- 
erously given me. (Applause.) All of us are interested in the welfare of our 
country, because in the welfare of our country is involved the individual welfare 
of every citizen. If our great country is prosperous then the people are pros- 
perous. What we want, no matter what political organization we may have 
belonged in the past, is a return to the good times of four years ago. We want 
good prices and good wages, and when we shall have them again we want them 
paid in good money. (Applause and cries of 'You are right.') Whether our 
prices be high or low, whether our wages be good or bad, they are all better by 
being paid in dollars worth one hundred cents each. (Tremendous cheering.) 
If we have good wages, they are better by being paid in good dollars. If we 
have poor wages, they are made poorer by being paid in poor dollars. AVhafe 
we all want moi'e than anything else is to keep our money equal to that of the 
most enlightened nations of the earth and maintain unsullied the ci*edit, the 
honor, and the good faith of the Government of the United States. (Great 
applause.) We are the greatest country in the world — greatest in our freedom, 
greatest in our opportunities, greatest in our possibilities — and we are too 
great to taint our country's honor or cast suspicion on the credit or the 
obligations of our Grovernment. (Applause.) I thank you, my fellow citizens, 
and especially you, my friends, the workingmen of Alliance, who have left 



year SHOPS and factories to attest your interest in tlie great political contest 
«w pending, for let me tell you that I believe no higher compliment cauld be 
paid to any cause than to have the support of the men who toil. (Applause.) 
I iiiank you all and bid you good-bye." 

Then ensued another great demonstration, the workingmen crowdingabout 
U^^or McKiNLEY and repeatedly cheering him. He greeted all conlially, 
.s..aJcing hands with hundreds, and calling many by name, untU at 11:40 
im train pulled out for Cleveland. 



THE NEW ENGLAND DINNER. 

jNew England Day was celebrated at Cleveland on the Campus of Adelbert 
on Wednesday, July 23d, and there Major McKixley was given anothei 



»ost flattering reception, and prevailed upon to make his fourth speech of the 
,B»oming and afternoon. He was hailed with rapturous applause, aii^ gpoke a^ 

follows: 

"Mk. President and Ladies and Gentlemen : It gives me sincere Wi^asm-6 
to meet and address for a moment the New England Society of the city of 
'taeveland and Western Reserve of Ohio. Tliose of us who are not descendants 
aJf the Pilgrims of New England join cheerfully with those who are to pay high 
trifcrate to the men who did so much for civilization and for the establishment 
df free government on this continent. (Applause.) There has been every 
Tftriety of characterization of the New England pilgrim and pioneer— some of 
ifc of a friendly nature, but far too much of it captious, harsh and unjust. At 
iihis moment the picture of the Puritan painted by that gifted son of New 
England, the late George William Curtis, whose memory we revere and will 
ever cherish rises before me. (Applause. ) He said that the Puritan was 'narrow, 
Wgoted, sour, hard and intoUerant, but he was the man whom God had sifted 
three kingdoms to find as the seed-grain wherewith to plant a free Republic,' 
*sid that he had 'done moi-e for liberty than any man in human history' 
It is said that the blood of New England courses through the veins of a quarter 
«{ the population of the United States. I know. not how this may be, but I 
4o know that the ideas, principles and the conscience of New England course 
through every vein and artery of the American Republic. (Cheers and applause.) 
Well may you be proud to be descended from New England people, for never 
mas anything more happily said of them than these words by Whitxieb: 

'No lack was In thy primal Btock, 

No weakling founders builded here; 
They weie the men of Plymouth Rock — 
The Huguenot and the Cavalier.' 

The Puritan has fought — aye, and died — on every battle-field of the Republic 
&t>m Concord and Bunker Hill to Gettysburg and Appomattox. (Great 
applause.) And the torch of liberty he lit still illumines the whole world. I 
bid you, again in the language of our beloved Whittier, — 

'Hold fast to your Puritan heritage;— 
But let the free light of the age, 
Its life, its hope, its sweetness add 
To the sterner faith your fathers had.' 



(Great cheering.) 



56 



THE WINDOW GLASS WORKERS OP AflERICA. 

The streets of Canton were filled with marching people Saturday morning, 
July 25th, when the eight hundred delegates of the Window Glass Workers' 
Association of North America came to pay their respects to their esteemed 
friend and champion, William McKinley. Tlie delegates had been in attend- 
ance at the eighth annual National Convention of the Association in Pittsburg, 
and concluded it would be a fitting way to close their session by paying him a 
visit. Tlie delegation arrived at 10:40 via the Ft. AVayne railroad on a special 
train of eleven coaches. They were met at the depot by the Canton Troop, 
and the First Ward Drum Corps, and, headed by the Select Knight's Band, of 
Pittsburg, they mai-ched to Major McKinley's residence. When the column 
3^ached the house the band rendered a patriotic selection, and while awaiting 
the appearance of Major McKixley the Glee Club of twenty members sang 
«everal campaign airs which were heartily cheered. When Major McKinley 
appeared in the midst of the Committee he was receiveo with a great demon- 
stration of applause from all present, during which Mr. Henry Bostick, a 
delegate from Princeton, Indiana, climbed upon a chair, t<.nd as soon as silence 
was restored, spoke as follows: 

"Major McKinley: I have been delegated by the Committee representing 
my fellow workmen, the delegates to the Eighth National Convention of 
Window Glass Workers of North America, to present them to you, and the 
-sentiments I express are such as I have been instructed to express by thia 
Committee, consisting of James Campbell, G. L. Cake, George Ambos, John 
T. Morgan, Henry Bostick and John P. Eberhart. The men who stand 
before you to-day have come from the States ranging from the Berkshire hills 
in Massachusetts to the broad prairies of Illinois, and from the Great Lakes to 
beyond Mason and Dixon's line. From eleven States we come, represent- 
ing the overwhelming majority sentiment of all our fellow wr>rkmen who toil 
an the great window glass industry in every factory in the United States. We 
come fresh from the exacting school of experience. Our people have seen the 
tariff reduced in 1846, and that they suffered a reduction in wages in conse- 
quence. Another reduction of the tariff occurred in 1857, with a like reduction 
in our wages. The tariff was increased in 1861, and our wages were accord- 
ingly advanced. Again in 1890 the tariff was advanced, and we received a 
corresponding benefit. In 1893 the Gorman-Wilson Bill was passed, destroy- 
ing the protective features of the then existing McKinley Law, and greatly 
reducing tne tariff, and we were in consequence not only greatly reduced 
in the rate of wages received for a given amount of work, but were thrown 
into a state of idleness, hunger and hardship. We come then to greet you 
whom that experience has taught us to regard as the only inflexible, unbend- 
ing and universally recognized champion of the very cornerstone of American 
progress — protection to home industries. Its effects are general and advan- 
tageous to every class of American citizens. To the farmer, by making dutiable 
the imports of such foreign products as meet like home products in the 
American markets, and by creating through the general operations of the 
wolicy, an active, reliable and remunerative market for all his products; to 
»iie employer who uses his capital in operating manufacturing enterprises, 
f)y creating and maintaining an active and healthy market for his wares, 
»n8iiring to him through an increased ability of the people to buy and 
•ise his wares, an active and steady demand, and hence a reliable activity 
•,n business; and for the laborer who toils in the employer'g ehops, by 

57 



insuring him steady employment at fair wages, with all the attendant 
blessings and privileges of working and living as citizens of this great and 
wonderfully resourceful country should be privileged to work and live — for we. 
know that an increased development of and production from our natural 
resources, if coupled with the multiijlied consumption of the product by our 
own people, inust inevitably exert a refining influence on our American 
civilization, and tend to elevate the standard of American citizenship, which 
can never rise higher than the average of the intelligence, morality and man- 
hood of the whole people. We love our country and have confidence in our 
Government. We believe that its immense wealth, phenomenal resources, 
the loyalty and bravery of its sons, the intelligence and genius of its people, all 
based ujion and nurtured by the beneficent influence of its free institutions, 
insure it against destruction or serious hurt from invasion with the sword by 
any foreign foe, but our experience has taught us that the invasion of our 
markets by the cheap labor of Europe is dangerous and destructive to the 
very foundation of our liberties, and constitute a foe to our institutions in all 
that makes them truly free and distinctly American , inasmuch as they are based, 
upon and can be maintained only by a care for the education of our children up 
to a high and intelligent citizenship. (Applause.) We believe that the only 
power that can successfully meet and rendei the invasion of this natural foe 
harmless is the operation oi that gi'eat bulwark of American prosperity, the 
protective principle strictly adhered to in the levying of duties on the 
importation of foreign products, which principle we believe to have been most 
ably and fully enunciated in the provisions of that wisely conservative and 
patriotic measui'e, the McKinley Law, of which we recognize you as the 
great architect who planned and builded it, schedule by schedule, and inaug- 
urated that gi'and system that spoke out hope and prosperity to the people 
and all the people of this Nation. We want that principle restored to the 
statutes. We are satisfied with the quality of our dollars, and have no fear about 
the volume of our money as a Nation, if the tariff is so regulated, and levied 
on such principles, as to protect American industries, and provide sufficient 
funds to meet the ordinary expenses of the Government, thereby insuring to us 
the opportunity to work and receive the money that is the just reward of an 
American workingman. At the same time we demand that if the employers 
in foreign countries would bring the products of their cheap labor to compete 
in our markets with the products of our free American labor, they must meet 
us on even ground by bringing back with those products some of the gold thai 
the present Administration has been forced first to borrow, and then return to 
them as interest on the public debt — a debt they are steadily increasing, 
and rendering more burdensome, day by day, as they proceed. All, or 
nearly all of this, is through the operations of their great panacea, 
* Tariff Reform,' sometimes called * Tariff for Revenue Only,* which vre 
would amend by changing the punctuation and adding, a few words, 
making it read, * Tariff for Revenue, Only it Fails to Produce the Revenue.* 
(Cheers.) We desired to greet you personally, Major McKinley, because we 
look upon you as the favorite son of the United States, not the choice of any 
political machine, or urp:ed by the j^eople within the confines of a single State; 
but the one to whom the people all looked when they began to realize that 
the time had come when a standard-bearer must be chosen as a candidate of a 
great party for President of the United States — the one whose name spon- 
taneously burst from the care and sorrow-burdened hearts of the American 
people — the one grand character round whom every humble home and hearth- 

58 



stone in our broad land was clustering its hopes and are still clinging; ils faith 
for better and brighter days. We greet you, then, as our ideal of American 
citizenship, the unassuming soldier, patriot and statesyian, the hope of our 
people and the next President of the United States." (Tremendous cheering.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" Mr. BosTicK AND WixnowGLAss Workers op THiS United States: It is 
peculiarly gratifying to me to have this large body of the representatives of 
your Association, fresh from your deliberative Convention, and speaking for 
your great industry scattered over eleven States of the Union, honor me with 
a call of greeting and congratulation. I appreciate the words of confidence 
so eloquently expressed by your spokesman and agree with him that there is 
something fundamentally WTong about our governmental affairs that demands 
a speedy remedy, w^hich can only be had by the people speaking through the 
constitutional forms at the next general election. (Great applause.) You 
have spoken of some of our difficulties with singular force and accuracy, 
demonstrating that you appreciate fully the great problems which are before 
the people for investigation and settlement. Nothing could be better said 
than that a great essential to the credit of the country is to provide enough 
revenue to run the country. The credit of any government is imperiled so long 
as it expends more money than it collects. The credit of the government, like 
that of the individual citizen, is best subserved by living within its means, and 
providing means with which to live. Every citizen must know, as you have 
stated, that the receipts of the United States are now insufficient for its 
necessary expenditures, and that our present revenue 'aws have resulted in 
causing a deficiency in the Treasury for almost three years. It has been 
demonstrated, too, that no relief can be had through the present Congress. The 
relief rests with the people themselves. (Cheers.) They are charged with the 
election of a new Congress in November, which alone can give the needed relief. 
If they elect a Republican Congress, the whole world knows that one of its first 
acts will be to put upon the statute books of the country a law under which the 
Government will collect enough money to meet its expenditures, stop debts 
and deficiencies, and adequately protect American labor. (Great cheering and 
applause.) This would be one of the surest steps towai"d the return of con- 
fidence and a revival of business prosperity. (Applause.) The Government, 
my fellow citizens, has not been the only sufferer in the past three years, as 
your spokesman has vividly shown. The people have suffered, the laboring 
man in his work and wages, the farmer in his prices aiivl markets, and our 
citizens generally in their incomes and investments. Enforced idleness among 
the people has brought to many American homes gloom and wretchedness, 
w^here cheer and hope once dwelt. Both Government and people have paid 
dearly for a mistaken policy, a policy wiiich has disturbed our industries and 
cut down our revenues, always so essential to our credit, independence and 
prosperity. Having stricken dovm our industries, a new experiment is now 
proposed, one that would debase our currency and further w^eaken, if not 
wholly destroy, public confidence. Workingmen, have we not had enough of 
such rash and costly experiments? (Cries of 'We have!' 'We have !') Don't 
all of us wish for the return of the economic policy which for more than a thin! 
of a century gave the Government its highest credit and the citizen his greatest 
prosperity? (Great applause and cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') As four years ago 

59 



the people were warned against the industrial policy proclaimed by our politi- 
cal adversaries, which has since brought ruin upon the country, and were 
entreated to reject the theories which actual trial had always shown to be 
fraught with disaster to our revenues, employments and enterprises, so now 
they are again warned to reject this new remedy, no matter by what party or 
leaders it may be offered, as certain to entail upon the country only increased 
and aggravated disaster and suffering, and bring no good or profit to any public 
interest whatever. (Applause.) Circumstances have given to the Republican 
-party at this juncture of our National affairs a place of supreme duty and re- 
sponsibility. Seldom, if ever, has any political party occupied a post of such high 
' importance as that intrusted to the Republican party this year. Indeed, it may 
be confidently asserted that never before has any political organization been so 
•clearly and conspicuously called to do battle for so much that is best in grovern- 
Jinent than is this year demanded of the Republican party. But, happily, it will 
not contend alone. It will number amoDg its allies, friends and supporters, 
thousands of brave, patriotic and conscientious political opponents of the past, 
who will join our ranks and make common cause in resisting the proposed 
•debasement of our currency and the degradation of our country's honor, — 
'.earnest and strong men who will strive as zealously as we for the triumph of 
■correct principles and the continued supremacy of law and order, those strongest 
and mightiest pillars of free government. (Great applause.) The determina- 
tion of this contest calls for the exercise of the gravest duty of ^-ood citizenship, 
.-and partisanship should not weigh against patriotism, as, indeed, I am very sure 
.that it will not, in the calm and proper settlement of the questions which 
• confront us. The whole country rejoices to-day that the strong and sturdy 
men who toil are enlisted in the cause of American honor, American patriotism, 
American production and American prosperity — a cause which must surely 
^ win before the great tribunal of the American people. (Tremendous applause.) 
I thank you, my fellow citizens, for the compliment of this call, and your mani- 
festations of personal regard and good will, and it will give me sincere pleasure 
:to meet each of you personally." (Loud and long continued applause.) 



CHICAGO UNIVERSITY REPUBLICAN CLUB. 

"The ^Committee which called at his residence, Wednesday afternoon, 
•'July 59th, to present to Major McKinley a bust of himself, modeled by 
the famous sculptor Hans Hirsh, was received in the parlor. A party of news- 
;papeT men and several personal friends of Major McKinley attended when 
the presentation was made by J. 0. Ickes in behalf of the Republican Club 
•«if Chicago University. The gift came as a token of the high appreciation of 
Ulie students of the University for Major McKinley, and Mr. Ickes said: 

"Major McKinley: The eyes of all America are just now turned 
toward Canton as the City of Hope whence is to come forth the champion who 
is to save his country from the heresies which threaten her. Already a number 
of wise men have come out of the East to see this new prophet who has arisen, 
and they have spread abroad such reports of his might and power that our 
hearts have prompted us to see for ourselves. With this purpose in view we 
il\ave traveled from afar out of the boundless West and we rejoice to find our 
iliages more than realized. We come as the representatives of the host of 
yqfjpg Republicans who are enrolled in our colleges to-day; we come because 
j we., ^e patriotic and because the modern college man takes an especial interest in 

60 



ull that pertains to the welfare of his country. We all love William McKixlev 
and all that his name stands for in the present great crisis of our National life.. 
(Applause.) We often hear it said that there is nothing in a name, but I can 
repeat to you a name that means honor, sincerity and truth, a name that has 
already been written in history among the noblest and best men that our 
country has produced, a name that is to receive still greater fame and glory in 
the future. I refer to the Republican nominee for President of the United 
States — "William McKinley. (Applause.) Major McKixley, in behalf of the- 
Republican Club of the University of Chicago, it is my privilege to present to- 
you this masterpiece of a great artist, a masterpiece not only because of its. 
perfection, but because of him whom it represents, hoping that you will accept 
it in the spirit in which it is offered — a spirit of profound love and esteem." 
(Applause.) 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Ickes axd Gextlemex: It gives me great pleasure to meet this^ 
Committee from the Republican Club of tl^e University of Chicago, and I can 
but say that if the Republican party is to continue its progi*ess of power 
and usefulness, it must be done through the conscience and intelligence of the 
people. It is indeed a good omen to find the young gentlemen of the many 
colleges of the United States attaching themselves to the Republican organiza- 
tions to sustain correct political pi-inciples and the National honor. (Applause. ) 
There is no class of men more potent than those who go out from the colleges 
into every county and State of the Union. They wield a mighty power, and it 
is fortunate for the country that so many of them are enlisted this year for the 
principles of good government and clean political methods, an honest canvass 
and a pure and intelligent civil service. (Applause.) I am glad to know that 
Republican principles are such that they can be submitted with safety and 
confidence to the intelligence of tho educated men of the country. I am pleased 
with the bust wliich you have been so kind as to bring me, and I accept it in 
the spirit in which it has been presented. I beg that you convey to the artist 
and members of the Republican Club of the University of Chicago my sincere 
thanks for it." (Applause.) 

THE KNOXVILLE HcKINLEY AND HOBART CLUB. 

The McKinley and Hobart Club, of Knoxville, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburg,, 
accompanied by a number of friends, came to pay their respects to Major- 
McKixley on Thursday, July 30th. It was a fine delegation, numbering some 
five hundred men, thoroughly representative of a great State, coming from 
farm, forge, shop and stoi-e, and, in tlie woi*ds of the spokesman, "representing 
that hive of industry — that mighty workshop — composed of Pittsburg and her- 
neighboring borough." The delegation was well organized and marched likc- 
a regiment of regulars. A band headed the procession and a quartet styled 
the "Tariff League Singers of Pittsburg," accompanied the Club. Mr. Joiix 
P. Eberhard, President of the McKinley and Hobart Club, who is also- 
President of the Glass Workers' Union, acted as spokesman for the visitors. 
He said : 

"Major McKixley: We come from that wonderful hive of industry, that 
mighty workshop, composed of Pittsburg, and. its neighboring boroughs. Weai'e 

61 



iiepublicans, and we believe in our party and its principles. We are proud ot 
its record and the result of its policy in the past ; and we have faith in that party 
■as being the only medium through whicli we may hope 'for a return of pros- 
perity to the people, both in the agi-icultural and manufacturing industries of 
the whole country. We believe in bimetallism, and we recognize in the 
Republican party the only real, true and safe advocate of that policy, namely, 
the use of both gold and silver as money, each interchanget^^le with the other, 
each dollar good as every other dollar. We, do not, and we feel assured that 
you do not, believe in monometallism, or the use of either gold or silver as the 
only money ; and knowing this, we know you will and must oppose the visionary 
ideas of those who would seek to create values by the legislative fiat of the 
Nation, and the attempts of those who seek to plac" us upon the single silver 
basis, thereby driving our gold out of circulation and out of the country. AVe 
"believe you will use all the power you possess as the Chief Executive of the 
United States to bring about, by international agreement, which is the only 
manner in which it can be accomplished, the restoration of silver as a money 
metal at a fixed ratio with gold. We believe, sir, that wise legislation, on tlie 
principle of protection, and to the end that it will yield an abundant revenue for 
theex])enses of the Government, forthepaymentofdebts,fortheimprovementof 
our rivers and harbors, for the upbuilding of our navy, and for internal improve- 
ments of various kinds will restore our country to great prosperity and will 
solve the money problem about which so many of our people seem to be con- 
cerned. We recognize in your public career and in your private life those 
noble qualities of mind and heart tha give us the assurance that the great 
interests of this country, over which you will shortly be called to preside, will 
be in safe hands, and that you, trusting in the strength and guided by the 
counsels of the Suprome Ruler of nations, will be able to discharge the grave 
responsibility and execute the duties of your high oflRce so as to lead us as a 
people in the higher paths of duty to more glorious achievements than have 
marked our wonderful past." (Applause ) 



Jlajor ricKinley's Response. 

After the storm of applause which greeted Major MoKinley had subsided, 
he said: 

"Mr Eberhard and My Fellow Citizens: I am glad, indeed, to meet 
and gi-eet the Knoxville McKinley and Hobart Club in this city and at my 
home, and I thank you cordially for traveling so long a distance to express 
your personal good will to me and your devotion to the great principles of the 
Republican party. You are right, Mr. Spokesman, in saying that the Repub- 
lican party stands now as it has always stood for a sound and stable cur- 
rency and for the maintenance of all its money of every kind at parity, so that 
it shall always be equal to the best money of the most civilized nations of the 
earth. (Applause.) A depreciated currency, as you have so well said, would 
work disaster to the interests of the people, and to none more than those of 
the workingmen and farmers. Long years ago Daniel Webster said that 
those who were the least able to bear it were the first to feel it and the last 
to recover from it. 'A disordered currency,' said he, 'is fatal to industry, 
frugality, and economy. It fosters the spirit of speculation and extravagance. 
It is the most effectual of inventions to fertilize the rich man's fields with the 

62 



sweat of the poor man's brow.' That wliich we call money, my fellow citizens, 
and with which vahies are measured and settlements made, must be aa 
true as the bushel which measures the grain of the farmer, and as honest 
as tlie hours of labor which the man who toils is required to give. (Loud 
applause.) The one must be as full and comjilete and as honest as the other. 
(Applause.) Our currency to-day is good — all of it is as good as gold and has been 
so ever since the Republican party secured the resumption of specie, payments 
in 1879 — and it is the unfaltering determination of the Republican party to so 
keep and maintain it forever. (Cheers.) It is the duty of the people of this 
country to stand unitedly against every effort to degrade our currency or debase 
our credit. (Cries of 'They will.') They must unite now as they have united in 
the past in very great crisis of our country's history without regard to past 
party afRliatioiis or differences to uphold the National credit and honor as 
sacredly as our flag. (Cheers.) When the country seemed wildly bent on 
inflation in the years preceding the resumption of specie payments the sober 
sense of the American people without regard to party united and stemmed that 
threatened tide of irredeemable paper money and repudiation and placed and 
kept the Nation on the rock of public honor, sound finance and honest currency. 
You have rightly stated tliat the Republican party not only believes in sound 
money and the highest public faith and honor on the part of the Government 
of the United States to all its creditors, but also that it believes in a tariff 
which while raising enough money to conduct the Government, economically 
administered, will serve the highest and best interests of American labor, 
American agriculture, American commerce, and American citizenship. 
(Cheers.) Some of our political opponents are given to saying that the tariff 
question is settled. If we are not wrong in interpreting their meaning, we 
think they are right, (laughter), and thank them for the confession. (Applause. ) 
AVe believe that the tariff question is settled — settled in the minds and hearts 
of the American people, and settled on the side of protection. (Tremendous 
cheering.) But, how^ever firmly it may be settled in the public mind, it is not 
yet settled in public law^ What is in the hearts and consciences of the people 
touching any public question is not effective until it is written in public 
statute, and this can only be done through the elective franchise in the choice 
of a Congress of the United States, which makes our public law's. No one, I 
take it, will regard the present tariff law as a just and final settlement of the 
question. Whatever may be our differences about tlie economic principle upon 
which tariff legislation should be made, all agree that the present tariff law is 
a failure, even as a revenue measure. So, without discussing the principle of 
free tradt or protection, everybody must appreciate that no law is a settlement 
which ere. tes every month a deficiency in the public treasury. (Loud applause 
and cheerfc ''or 'McKinley.') The people of this country are not satisfied with 
such an enactment, and will not be satisfied until a public law shall express 
the public ^'ill in a statute which provides adequate revenues for the needs 
of the Govt i-nment, full security for its credit, and ample protection to the 
labor, capita, and energy of the American people. (Applause.) I thank you 
my follow cit zens, for this friendly call, and I assure you that it will give me 
pleasure to meet each of you personally. 



CAHBRIDGE AND GUERNSEY COUNTY. 

Three . hundred citizens of Guernsey County visited Canton on Friday 
morning, July 81, to pay their personal respects to Major McKixley and tender- 
formal congi-atulations. The delegation was about evenly divided between' 
members of the G. A. E. Posts of Cambridge and employes of the Cambridge- 
tin mill. The party came to this city by way of the C, T. and V. railroad,, 
arrived here at eleven o'clock, and were at once escorted to Major McKinley's- 
residence by George D. Harter and Canton G. A. R. Posts and the McKinley- 
Drum Corps. When they arrived at the McKinley residence after a selection 
by the O. U. A. M. band of Cambridge, Mr. H. S. Moses, commander of George 
D. Harter Post, presented Colonel Joseph D. Taylor to Major McKinley as the 
spokesman for the visitors. He referred to the flood of high water through, 
which their train had come from Cambridge, and said : 

"Major McKinley: We come to-day to tender you our personal regards 
and to add congratulations to the many hitherto given you. AVe have not come- 
as partisans but as friends and neighbors. You have to-day before you in this- 
delegation many comrades of the G. A. R. of Cambridge. They are men who 
have learned to love you for your patriotic devotion to your country in time of 
war and in time of peace. These old comrades have come to pay tribute to 
your high personal character and for the public service you have rendered. 
The old soldiers want one thing remembered, and that is that the honor and 
integrity of the old flag must be maintained. (Cheers.) You heard it said in 
Congress that we could not make tin in this country but I want to say that we 
have in this crowd men who are employed in the Cambridge tin mill. They 
work in a tin mill which has sent out 6,000 tons or 120,000 boxes, of tin a year 
and it is as good as any tin plate made across the water. (Cheers.) These men 
have come from Guernsey County, from all the walks of life. We have come to 
believe that the star of hope for the laboring man is resting in Canton. In 
behalf of the men and women in this delegation — for there are a number of 
ladies who have come along with us — I extend greeting to you and Mrs.. 
McKinley." (Applause.) 

After the cheering had ended Dr. W. H. McF.-lrland was introduced. "Se- 
is bowed under the weight of years and as Chaplain of the Ninety-eighth Regi- 
ment Ohio Volunteer Infantry is well known throughout the State. He said 
that he had come to see and hear and grasp the hand once more of the most 
illustrious friend of labor in the United States. (Cheers.) "He is the man 
who has done more for the laboring men than any other man in this country — 
or in the world for that matter. No one has done more to elevate or dignify 
labor and no man has put a brighter crown of glory on the brow of honest toil 
than you." (Great applause.) 

riajor flcKinley's Response, 

Major McKinley spoke without manuscript, or notes, and with great force 
and eloquence. He was cheered time and again, and at the conclusion of hi& 
address there was the crush of visitors to grasp his hand. He said : 

"Colonel Taylor, Dr. McFarland, My Comrades and Fellow Citizens : 
It gives me great gratification to receive this call from iny friends and fellow 
citizens of Guernsey County, where I have made bO many visits in years gone 
by that I know most of you personally. But aside from that I know some- 
thing of the quality of your population and the spirit of your people. I know 

64 ' 



something of you loyalty and devotion to the Union in war, and I know muck 
of your loyalty and devotion to good government in peace, (Cheers,) and, know- 
ing you as I do, I am certain that neither flood nor fire would stop you from 
doing what you had proposed to do. (Laughter and applause.) I am glad to 
meet the representatives of labor who are assembled here this morning. I 
congratulate them upon the advance that has been made in the tin-plate 
industry to which my old collea<rue in Congress, Col. Taylor, has referred. I 
am glad to know that Republican legislation gave to this country an industry 
M'hich insures work and wages to American workingmen and brings happiness 
to American homes. (Great cheering and applause.) I am glad, too, my fellow 
citizens, to meet my old comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
(applause) my comrades of thirty-five years ago, for the war commenced over 
thirty-five years ago, and it is nearly thirty-two years since its close. It seems 
not so long, not so far away to us, but as I look into the faces of the old soldiers 
before me, I can see that age is stamping its lines of care upon them. Their 
steps are no longer as steady and firm as they used to be, but their hearts are jusi 
as loyal to the old flag of the Union as ever. (Tremendous cheering.) They are 
just as loyal to National honor to-day as they were loyal to National unity then. 
(Applause.) When the war closed there were two great debts resting upon 
this Government. One was the debt due to the men who had loaned the 
Goverment money with which to carry on its military operations. The other 
debt was due to the men who had willingly offered their lives for the preser- 
vation of the American Union. (Cheers.) "The old soldiers waited on their 
pensions imtil this gi-eat debt of the Government was well out of the way. 
They waited patiently until the Government of the United States had paid 
nearly two-thirds of that great money debt and refunded it all to a lower rate 
of interest. The old soldiers never were in favor of repudiating that debt. 
(Applause.) They wanted every dollar of it, principal and interest, paid in the 
best coin kno^vn to the commercial world; (great applause) and every dollar 
of that debt, up to this hour, has been paid in gold, or its equivalent, the recogniz- 
ed best money of the hour, (cheers) and every dollar of that debt, my comrades, 
yet to be paid, will be paid in the same imquestioned coin. (Tremendous cheer- 
ing. ) Most of that debt is out of the way. The great debt of this Government now 
is to the surviving soldiers of the Republic. (Applause.) There are 970,000 
pensioners on the honored pension roll of this Government to-day, and the 
Government pays out of its public treasury in pensions over $140,000,000 every 
year to our soldiers and sailors, or their widows and orphans. Every dollar of 
that debt must be paid in the best currency and coin of the world. (Great 
cheers and cries of 'The Republican party will do that.') There is nobody 
more interested in maintaining a sound and stable currency than the ol 
soldiers of the Republic, (applause and cries of 'You are right Major,') the! 
widows and their orphans. Our old commander, General Grant (applause 
whose memory is cherished by all of us, performed two gi-eat and conspicuou 
acts while President of the United States. One was the vetoing of the Inflatio 
Bill, which would have cast us hopelessly upon a sea of depreciated currency. 
The other was the signing of the Resumption Act, for the safe and speedy 
resumption of specie payments, which placed every dollar of money upon 
the sound foundation of financial honor and unquestioned National honesty, 
and the old soldiers this year, as in all the years of the past, following their 
Old Commander, will stand by the financial honor of the Government, and 
will no more permit their Nation's integrity to be questioned than they 
would permit that flag (pointing to an American flag) to be assailed. (Applause 

66 



and cries of 'You are right.') I thank you, my fellow citizens, for your call 
and congratulations, and assure you that it will afford me much pleasure to 
meet each and all of you personally." (Applause and cheers.) 



CONGRATULATIONS BY WIRE AND MAIL. 

WHILE Major McKinley was receivirg the personal congratulations of 
thousands of his fellow citizens in Ohio, the wires were bu;:,y convey- 
ing him almost as many similar messages from all parts of the Union. 
Not only was the special wire at his residence carrying him hundreds of friendly 
greetings from St. Louis, but the telegraph offices in Canton were flooded with 
messages they could hardly receive much less deliver. The same condition 
prevailed at Pittsburg, where at one o'clock Friday morning, June 19th, the 
Western Union Co. reported that there were congratulatory telegrams piled a 
foot high in their office which it was impossible to transmit. Up to that 
time several thousand had already been received by Major McKinley, the 
rush beginning before his nomination and continuing for some days after. 
Among the thousands of inessagec received, including some that came by mail, 
were the following: 

Hon. Garret A. Ilobart, of New Jersey, the Republican nominee for Vice 
President: "Accept my hearty congratulations and those of the New Jersey 
delegation " To which Major McKinley replied ; "I send you my cordial con- 
gratulations and hope you can visit me on your way home." 

Hon. Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, Speaker of the National House of Repre- 
sentatives: "I wish you a happy and prosperous Administration: happy for 
yourself and prosperous for the country." 

Hon. Matthew S. Quay, U. S. Senator, Beaver, Pennsylvania: "I congratu- 
late you upon the splendid vote of confidence you received from the Convention, 
which represents the absolute thought of the Republican party of the Nation . 
Hon. Levi P. Morton, Governor of New York, Rhinecliff : "You may 
recall my remark, in 1879, as we sat side by side in the House of Representatives, 
that I expected some day to see you President of the United States. Please 
accept to-day my heartiest congratulations." 

Hon. William B. Allison, U. S. Senator, Dubuque, Iowa: "Accept my 
sincere and hearty congratulations upon your nomination." 

Hon. William O. Bradley, Governor of Kentucky, Frankfort: "Allow me 
to extend to you my hearty congratulations on your success. I have no doubt 
you will be triumphantly elected, and that you will come fully up to the 
expectations of your friends in the discharge of every duty which may be 
presented. I was invited to go to Cincinnati to-night for a ratification 
meeting. But owing to the large accumulation of important business during 
my absence at the Convention, found it impossible todoso, and so telegraphed. 
I shall not fail to do my duty in the approaching contest, unless it should be 
from inability. Kindest wishes for your success." 

Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, U. S. Senator, Springfield, Illinois: "Please 
accept my hearty congratulations for yourself and Mrs. McKinley. You will 
be triumphantly elected." 

Hon. Cushman K. Davis, U. S. Senator, St. Paul, Minnessota: "Permit 
me to add my congratulations to the many you are receiving. Your nomina- 

66 



tion is a fulfillment and realization of Republican principles decreed by the 
people themselves. I feel sure that history will, date from that nomination 
the greatest epocli of prosperity for the American people tliey have ever 
enjoyed.'* 

Hon. Charles F. Manderson, Omaha, Nebraska: "Congi-atulations of Mrs. 
Manderson and myself on your nomination and certainty of election aa 
President. 

Hon. Benjamin Harrison, ex-President of the United States,' Indianapolis: 
"I beg to extend to you my hearty congi-atulations upon your nomination and 
to express my confidence that the people will in November ratify the work of the 
St. Louis Convention. Please present my respects to Mrs. McKinley." 

Hon. Whitelaw Reid, New York: "It should be a matter of the greatest 
personal pride to you that while our party has existed for a quarter of a century 
tliere lias never before been so good a chance for a square fight and a splendid 
victory for Protection and Honest Money." 

Hon. George L. Wellington, U.S. Senator-elect, Cumberland, Maryland: 
*'Our State will give you eight electoral votes in November. 

Hon. Stephen B. Elkins, U. S. Senator, "West Virginia: "The people will 
see to it that your election will follow. West Virginia will be in the McKinley 
column." 

Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, U. S. Senator, Nahant, Massachusetts: "I need 
J'ardly say tliat all I can do to secure your triumphant election and a Republi- 
Lfin victory will be done." 

Hon. George C. Perkins, U. S. Senator, San Francisco, Cal. : "In behalf of 
the Republicans of California, I tender you my hearty congratulations and greet 
you as the foremost exponent of our party principles. We congratulate the 
people of our country that you will be our next President." 

General Joseph R. Hawley, U. S. Senator, Hai'tford, Conn. : "We have a 
roble cause, a noble platform and a noble candidate. Sincerest congratulations 
and hearty support." 

Hon. Francis E. Warren, U. S. Senator, Cheyenne, Wyoming: "Permit 
me to add my o\\ti to the sincere congratulations of Wyoming. It is the earn- 
est purpose of the party in this State to add to its unanimous endorsement for 
domination given you in Stats Convention some weeks since, its solid support 
j't the polls next November." 

Hon. Joseph B. Foraker, U. S. Senator-elect, Cincinnati, Ohio: "Heartiest 
congi-atulations upon your triumphant nomination." 

Hon. J. C. Pritchard, U. S. Senator, Marshall, North Carolina: "Permit 
me to congratulate you on your nomination. I feel confident that you will 
receive tlie electoral vote of North Carolina." 

Hon. Nelson W. Aldrich, United States Senator, Providence, Rhode Island: 
"I congratulate you that you are to have the post of honor and responsible 
leadership in the great contest for Protection and Sound Money. I believe tlie 
victory will be so emphatic tliat the policy we contend for will be accepted for 
a generation. I know how tlioroughly your work will be a labor of love and 
how well it will always be done." 

Hon. John M. Thurston, U. S. Senator, Omaha, Nebraska: "This is the 
year of the people." 

Hon. John Sherman, U. S. Senator, Mansfield, Ohio: "My Dear Sir: I 
have not hurried in sending you my congratulations for your nomination as 
the next President of tlie United States, but they are not less hearty and 



67 



sincere. I will gladly do ail I can to secure your triumijhant election. Give 
to Mrs. McKinley my best wishes, in which Mrs. Sherman joins. " 

Hon. John H. Mitchell, U. S. Senator from Oregon, Washington, D. C: 
"Accept cordial congratulations." 

Hon. Julius C. Burrows, U. S. Senator, Kalamazoo, Michigan: "Here's 
my hand and heart in sincerest congratulation ! The nominees and platform 
will receive the triumphant endorsement of the American people," 

Hon. Watson C. Squire, U. S. Senator, Seattle, Washington; "You have 
my earnest and hearty congratulations." 

Hon. Jacob H. Gallinger, U. S. Senator, New Hampshire: "With pleasant 
memories of the Forty-Ninth and Fiftieth Congresses, and in anticipation of 
your triumphiiiiu election, I offer sincere congratulations." 

Hon. SerenoE. Payne, M. C, Auburn, New York: "You have my most 
sincere congratulations, as you will have my heartiest support. New York is 
enthusiasticfor the ticket, and I believe we will beat Pennsylvania majorities." 

Hon. Warren B. Hooker, M. C, Fredonia, New York: "Hearty congrat- 
ulations. This district will give you IG COO pluralty. " 

Hon. Jam'-s II. Southard, M. C, Toledo, Ohio: "Accept heartiest congrat- 
ulations. We also congratulate ourselves. " 

Hon. Winfield S. Kerr, M. C, Mansfield, Ohio: "Congratulations. The 
ovation when you were named was the greatest ever accorded an American 
citizen." 

Hon. John Dalzell, M, C, Pittsburg, Pa.: "My congratulations and best 
wishes for your future success and happiness and that of our people." 

Hon. Jonathan P. Dolliver, M. C, Fort Dodge: "Iowa is now to a man for 
you. My brother, Victor B. Dolliver, joins with me in greetings and congrat- 
ulations to the Advance Agent of the Prosperity that is at hand." 

Hon. Charles P. Taft, M. C, Cincinnati: "Accept my warmest congratu- 
lations on the results of the great Convention." 

Hon. Matthew Griswold, M. C, Erie, Pa: "Congratulations. Honest 
Money and Protection will win the fight. Hurrah for the first victory !" 

Hon. Walter Evans, M. C, Louisville, Ky. : "Accept my most cordial 
congratulations. I believe you will get the electoral vote of Kentucky." 

General Charles A. Boutelle, M. C, Bangor, Maine: "Accept congratu- 
lations. If we could not have Pteed, we are glad to raise the banner of Blaine's 
lifelong friend." 

Hon. D. K. Watson, M. C, Columbus, Ohio: "Your nomination is the 
triumph of Protection ; your election will be the triumph of Patriotism, and 
American homes will be the happier because of it. My congraulations on the 
great work of to-day." 

Hon. Seth L. Milliken, M. C, Belfast, Maine: "Accept my sincere con- 
gratulations and give my regards toPIanna." 

Hon. George W. Hulick, M. C, Batavia, Ohio: "I congratulate you and 
the party on your nomination, and the whole people of this country upon the 
promise of an Administration that will have for its ' uidance the patriotic 
principles so admirably enunciated in the St Louis pla' rm." 

Hon. Joseph H. Walker, M. C , Worcester, Mass? usetts: "Present to 
Mrs. McKinley and accept for yourself my most hearty congratulations." 

Hon. Marriott Brosius, M. C, Lancaster, Pa.: "Lancaster County sends 
cordial congratulations. " 

Hon. Charles F. Joy, M. C, St. Louis: "Hearty congratulations. Com- 
mand my services in any way to assist in compassing your triumphant elec- 
tion." 



Hon. D. B. Henderson, M. C, Dubuque, Iowa:' "Whipped but happy. 
Hearty and sincere congi'atulations." 

Hon. John A. Pickler, M. C, Faulkton, S. B.: "Congratulations on your 
nomination and the vindication of the McKinley BiU, for which, under your 
leadership, I had the honor to vote. We will carry South Dakota for the 
Republican ticket, McKinley, Protection and Prosperity." 

Hon. Richmond Pearson, M. C, Asheville, North Carolina: "McKinley, 
Protection and Prosperity nominated on first ballot. Accept congratulations." 

Hon, Lucien J. Fenton, M. C, Winchester, Ohio: "Hearty congratula- 
tions. Your triumph is the people's triumph." 

Hon. George Edmund Foss, M. C, of Chicago: "The convention was only 
a great ratification meeting." 

Hon. Nelson Dingley, Jr., M. C, Lewiston, Maine: "Congratulations. 
Maine Republicans were ardently for Reed until a majority made you the 
Republican standard bearer. They are now as earnestly for you." 

Hon. J. Frank Aldrich, M. C, Chicago; "Congratulations and best 
wishes." 

Hon. John F. Lacey, M. C, Oskaloosa, Iowa: "I congratulate you on your 
nomination and hope to be in the Fifty-Fifth Congress to support your admin- 
istration." 

Hon. Edward S. Minor, M. C, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, from Washington. 
"Hearty Congratulations. I leave for Wisconsin to enter at once on the 
campaign of 1896." 

Hon. Binger Herrman, M. C, Roseberg, Oregon, from Elko, Nevada: 
"While crossing the continent to Oregon, I have just learned of y ^ur nomina- 
tion. Accept hearty congratulations." 

Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, M. C, Danville, Illinois: "I heartily cou.p'atulate 
you upon your nomination." 

Hon. R. C. McCormick, M. C, Jamaica, New York: "We believe your 
election is a foregone conclusion. Accept our warmest personal congratula- 
tions." 

Mrs. Julia Dent Grant, widow of Ulysses S. Grant, New York: "Accept 
congi-atulations for youself and IVIrs. McKinley." 

Colonel and Mrs. Erederick D. Grant, New York: "We send to you, our 
futui'e President, our heartfelt and joyful congratulations." 

Mrs. U. S. Grant, Jr., San Diego, California: "Please accept my congrattf 
iations upon your nomination." 

Webb C. Hayes, Cleveland, Ohio: "Hearty congratulations. We are 
perfectly delighted." 

Mrs. Lucretia R. Garfield, widow of the late President James A. Garfield, 
Cleveland, Ohio, to Mrs. McKinley: "Our two families unite in congratulations 
to you and Major McKinley in the earnest hope that the next four years 
may bring to you the most of joy and the least of sorrow, and be made to the 
Nation years of triumphant prosperity." 

Mrs. Hrriet S. Blaine, widow of the late James G. Blaine, Augusta, Maine : 
"Hearty congratulations to yourself and Mrs. McKinley, with tender tlioughts 
of the past." 

Hon. James G. Blaine, Jr., New York: "My hearty congratulations." 

Hon. John A. Logan, Jr., cabled from Cox^enhagen: "Hearty congratula- 
tions. All Americans abroad rejoice. Mother sends love to Mrs. McKinley." 

Hon. Russell B. Harrison, Terre Haute, Indiana: "Please accept oux 

69 



hearty congratulations on your nomination, which surely means success in 
November," 

Mrs. Nathaniel P. Banks, widow of the first Republican Speaker of the 
National House of Representatives, Waltham, Mass. : "I rejoice in your nom- 
ination, and have confidence in your election." 

Mrs. M. A. Hanna, Cleveland: "Happiest and warmest congratulations on 
your success." 

Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, President Woman's Republican Association of the 
United States. Geneseo, Illinois: " On behaK of two million American work- 
ingwomen I extend my heartiest'congratulations." 

Col. John Hay, one of President Lincoln's Private Secretaries, cabled from 
Lahaye: "Cordial greetings." 

Judge Robert H, Douglas, son of the late Stephen A. Douglas, Greensboro, 
North Carolina: "Greetings and congratulations to the truest exponent of. 
American interest." 

Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, Chicago, Hlinois: "McKinleyism, originated as 
a term of reproach, has become the only slogan of success." 

Joseph Jefferson, Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts: " I beg to offer my con- 
gratulations upon your nomination. 

Richard Mansfield, Aurora, Hlinois: "Accept my sincere congratulations." 

Hon Chauncey M. Depew, of New York: "I have attended many National 
conventions and neve; left one more perfectly satisfied with ticket and platform. 
I congratulate you on the honor, and the American people on the result." 

Hon. M. A. Hanna. Judge Albert C. Thompson, and Genei*al Charles H. 
Grosvenor, Convention Hall, St. Louis: "Hearty congi-atulations. Never was 
there such enthusiasm before. No telling when Foraker can go on with his 
nominating speech. The convention has been cheering you for thirty 
minutes." 

Plon. John Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, Pa., from Hoboken, N. J. : "Send 
this from the steamer, on which, at quarantine, I received good news. Hearty 
congratulations." 

Hon. John "W. Noble, ex-Secretary of the Interior, St. Louis: "Please 
accept my congratulations and my hope that you may be elected President. If 
we may redeem Missouri at the same time it will be additional cause for thanks 
and praise. The party has justice with it and is thrice armed." 

Hon. Charles Foster, ex-Secretary of the Treasury, Fostoria, Ohio : "Your 
success is the most remarkable in many respects in our history. To all intents 
the nomination has perhaps more nearly the unanimity of the party behind it 
than any heretofore made." 

Richard Hatton, New York: "A thousand congi-atulations from mother 

and myself." 

Hon. Thomas L. James, ex-Postmaster General, New York: " Everybody 
shouts for McKinley and Hobart. Protection and Honest Money." 

Hon. Thomas W. Ferry, ex-Senator and Acting Vice-President, Grand 
Haven, Michigan: "Accept my hearty congratulations upon the merited 
promptness of your Presidental nomination." 

Hon. Samuel J. Randall, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia: "Please accept my 
heartiest congratulations. Long live the Apostle of Patriotism, Protection and 
Prosperity!" 

Hon. William L. Strong, Mayor, New York City: " New York will ratify 
your nomination ii> November by giving you the largest majority ever given a- 
Presidential candidate." 

70 



Hon. Charles F. Warwick, Mayor, Philaf^elphia, Pa.: "Warmest congratu- 
lations." 

General Powell Clayton, Eureka Springs, Arkansas: "The Republican 
masses have expressed themselves just as the masses of the people will at the 
polls." 

Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, New York : "As a rule I do not like to prophecy, 
but I think it is safe to say New York will give you the largest majority by far 
that she has ever given a Presidential candidate." 

Hon. John E. Russell, Boston, Massachusetts: "No man of all your 
admiring and loving supporters more cordially and disinterestedly congrat- 
ulates you and the country than I do. I am your sincere political opponent, 
but no less your cordial and sincere friend." 

Hon. Frank Hiscock, Syracuse, New York: "I assure you of my very great 
personal satisfaction with your nomination. It was conducted in a most liberal 
spirit and with absolute fidelity to the principles of our party. We 'o into 
the canvass for your election unfettered by doubtful resolves and will gain a 
glorious triumph for our country. You have the right to be very proud ^f the 
love and respect of the American people for you." 

Hon. H. Clay Evans, Planters Hotel, St. Louis: "Accept my congratula- 
tions. It was a great victory, and Tennessee was unanimously for you . " 

General Russell A. Alger, of Detroit, from the Convention Hall, St. Louis: 
"The entire Michigan delegation send greetings and congratulations to the 
next President." 

Hon. John C. Spooner, ex-Senator, Madison, Wisconsin: "I congratulate 
you with all my heart upon the St. Louis consummation. Your nomination 
was really made long ago, and the Convention was merely a great National 
Committee appointed by the people to tender it to you. It will be a great 
pleasure to fight for such a ticket on such a platform." 

Dr. John H. Vincent, Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, congratu- 
lated Mrs. McKinley, saying: "You appreciate as no one else can, your hus- 
band's worth, nobility, power and tenderness." 

Hon. John N. Dolph, of Portland, Oregon: " I congratulate you on your 
nomination and certain election." 

General Granville M. Dodge, Des Moines, Iowa: "You have my hearty 
congratulations. As a true lowan I will give you the heartiest support that 
lies in the power of an old comrade." 

Hon. Blanche K. Bruce, ex-Senator from Mississippi, St. Louis: "For 
myself and people I heartily congratulate you." 

Hon. William D. Washburn, of Minnesota, from the Convention Hall, St. 
Louis : "Heartiest congratulations on your nomination . " 

Charles Parsons, St. Louis: "Half my prophecy fulfilled, and remainder 
will be. Accept my warmest congratulations . " 

Hon. Tom Ochiltree, of Texas, cabled from London : "Sincere congratula- 
tions for yourself and our country." 

Hon. John Patton, Jr., Grand Rapids, Michigan: "Heartiest congratula- 
tions to you and the country." 

Hon. William P. Kellogg, of Louisiana, from St. Louis: "I may just as 
well send congratulations to you as President-elect." 

Hon. John A. Sleicher, Albany : "All New York extends the glad hand to 
you." 

Hon Benjamin Butterworth, Washington, D. C: "My wife and family 

71 



join me in congratulating you on the honor of having me named by the great 
Republican party for the highest oflSce in the gift of a Nation of seventy mill- 
ions of people.'" 

Hon. L. E. McComas. U. S. Judge, Washington, D. C: "I congratulate 
you on your unanimous nomination, so long foreseen, so well deserved. You 
will be President, a wise and safe one, well rounding out a great career. You 
will, I am sure, carry Maryland and other doubtful Southern States," 

Col. W. W.Dudley, Washington, D. C. : "In common with all good 
Republicans I wish to send congratulations to you, because you deserve this 
great mark of confideuce, and to the couutry, that your loyal warm heart will 
control the destinies of the Republie for the next four years." 

Hon. L. T. Michener, Washington, D. C . : "I congratulate you upon your 
nomination, I earnestly desire your election and will do whatever I can to 
accomplish that result." 

Dr. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., Washington, D. C. : 'I desire to congratulate 
jou most cordially upon your nomination, and to express to you my most 
earnest hope and confident belief that if you live you will become President of 
the United States at high noon on the fourth of March next." 

Thomas McDougall, Cincinnati: "You are candidate and platform, the 
great leader in the new era of peace and prosperity. Heartiest congratula- 
tions." 

Hon. Nathan Goff, U. S. Judge, Washington, D. C : "Accept congratula- 
tions. West Virginia will send greetings in November. " 

Hon. Milton G. Urner, ex-Cogressman, Frederick, Maryland: "Please 
accept my cordial congratulations upon your splendid victory." 

Hon. William E. Mason, Chicago: "Itis done. Congratulations." 

Judge P. S. Grosscup, Seattle, Washington: "Your second stage towards 
the White House is completed. November will finish the third. Congratula- 
tions." 

Hon. Person C. Cheney, Manchester, N. H. : "Please accept my hearty 
congratulations." 

Hon. John M. Langston, Petersburg, Virginia: "Congratulations and 
assurances of hearty support." 

Hon. Morgan G. Bulkeley, Hartford, Connecticut: "Accept the hearty 
congratulations of the Connecticut delegation." 

Hon. Albion Little, Portland, Maine. "You are clearly the choice of the 
people." 

Hon. Benjamin F. Jones, Pittsburg: "I beg to send my hearty congratu- 
lations on your nomination." 

Hon. John W. Guffie, Fredricksburg, Virginia: "Republicans of this 
battle-scarred town recall with pleasure your service in the John S. Wise 
gubernatorial campaign and extend hearty congratulations." 

Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks, Indianapolis, Indiana: "With all thQ warmth 
of my heart, I congratulate you upon the great honor that rests upon you, and 
which you so well deserve." 

Hon. Morris M. Estee, San. Francisco: "You will carry California." 

Hon. James S. Clarkson, Des Moines, Iowa: "I congratulate you on your 
Eomination and stand ready to do what I can to aid in making your success in 
November as triumphant as your success at St. Louis." 

Hon. Charles R. Douglass, son of the distinguished colored orator, Frederick 
Douglass, Washington, D. C : '"As one of the host of American citizens who 
•went to St. Louis for the purpose of securing your nomination to the highest 

72 



office in the gift of the people, I desire to extend my congratulations and to 
promise my untiring support until the close of the polls on the day of election. 
My father", the late Frederick Douglass, had he lived until now, would be 
found in the forefront of your .supporters. I only hope to be as true to the 
princ'--es and oandidates of the Eepublican Party as he was." 

}Jon. L. B. Caswell, ex-Congressman, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin: "The 
CJoTivention did its work well. Accept most hearty congratulations.', 

Hon. John R. Buck, ex-Congressman, Hartford, Connecticut: "I congrat- 
ulate you most heartily. You deserve it." 

Emerson McMillen, New York: "The people brecathe easier to-day than 
for many months past. With patriotism in high places, labc protected, ard 
sound finance assured, prosperity will inevitably beam upon the country. 
Congratulations, in full faith that the American voters will make you Presi- 
dent." 

Hon. James J. McKenna, United States Circuit Judge, San Francisco, Cal- 
ifornia: " A crowning honor to a career of honor." 

Hon. AYallace Bruce, United States Consul at Leith, Scotland: "The peo- 
ple are happy." 

Dr. James H. Canfield, President of the Ohio University, Columbus: 
" You may recall that I told you last fall thai the result of the State election 
was a tribute to your personal hold upon the confidence of the people of this 
State. The result of the Convention at St. Louis simply carries this thought 
out to the people of the Nation. I have been a close observer of men and 
events for several years, and do not hesitate to say that you have won your 
own nomination by the strength of your character because the people believe 
in you." 

Dr. T. P. Marsh, President Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio: " Praise 
God from whom all blessings flow." 

Hon. James T. Cutler, President of the Chamber of Commerce, Roches- 
ter, New York: " The party is to be congratulated. With such candidates and 
on such a platform we can not be beaten. I expect to renew my acquaintance 
with you during the campaign and hope to cast the vote of Monroe County for 
you in the electoral college, an honor and pleasure which in this case will be 
greatly enhanced by the personal esteem in which I hold you." 

Howard P. Nash, Eminent Supreme Recorder, Northport, New York: 
" The entire Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity send congratulations to the next 
President of the United States." 

H. D. Julliard, New York City: "The business interests and the industrial 
welfare of the whole country are to be congratulated on your nomination and 
assured election. Prosperity will speedily return to us on the wings of Pro- 
tection and Sound Finance." 

Hon. John G. Sawyer, Albion, New York: "The people will confirm the 
action of the Convention by an unprecedented majority." 

Hon. Daniel H. Hastings, Governor, and Hon. H, C. McCormick, Attorney 
General, of Pennsylvania: " Pennsylvania rejoices at your nomination, and we 
personally extend you our heartiest congratulations." 

Hon. A. S. Bushnell, Governor of Ohio, St. Louis: " I congratulate you, 
Ohio, and the whole people of the United States on your nomination for the 
Presidency." 

Hon. John W.Griggs Governor, Paterson, New Jersey: " AVe congratu- 
late you. Ohio and New Jersey will be joined in the most prosperous Adminis- 
tration our counti-y has ever had." 

73 



Hon. Lloyd Lowndes, Governor, Annapolis, Maryland: "I congratulate 
you and tender best wishes for your success." 

Hon. E. N. Morrill, Governor of Kansas, Topeka: "I congratulate you 
with all my heart on the magnificent endorsement you have received from the 
people of our country. I feci sure that it will be ratified by an immense 
majority at the polls, and that you will give us one of the ablest and purest 
Administrations that the country has ever known. We shall work from now 
on until the election night, t_ give you a good majority in this Stat^. May 
God give you strength to sustain you in the discharge of the arduous duties 
which will devolve upon you." 

Hon. Urban A.Woodbury, Governor of Vermont, Burlington : "The country 
is to be congratulated. pi- :;dict your triumphant election and the return of 
prosperity. Vermont will sett' ^ pace in September." 

Hon. Charles W. Lippett, Governor of Rhode Island, from St. Louis: 
"Congratulations to Mrs. McKinlcy and yourself upon the grand results of the 
day." 

Hon. Daniel L. Russell, Republican candidate for Governor, Willmington: 
"North Carolina will ratify your nomination with eleven electoral votes in 
the right column. " 

Hon. L. K. Fuller, ex-Governor of Vermont, Brattleboro: "My heartiest 
congratulations and best wishes. Vermont i" as true as the stars of heaven in 
this great work. Victory is within our reach. God bless and keep you. " 

Hon. D. Russell Brown, ex-Governor cf Rhode Island, St. Louis: "Accept 
heartiest congratulations and earnest wishes for your election." 

Hon. Arthur Thomas, ex-Governor, Salt Lake City, Utah: "Accept my 
hearty, sincei*e and earnest congratulations." 

Hon. Charles T. Sexton, Lieutenant Governor, Clyde, New York : "Hearty 
congratulations to our next President." 

Hon. William H. Haile, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, Springfield: 
"You will be triumphantly elected." 

Hon. John Palmer, Secretary of State, Albany: "Hearty congratulations. 
McKinley and Protection touch the hearts of the people of New York." 

Hon. Richard Dallam, Secretary of State, Annapolis, Md. : "Ticket and 
platform invincible. You are sure of Maryland's electoral vote." 

Hon. Joseph Flory, State Railroad Comissioner, St. Louis: "Missouri was 
solid for you to-day and will be in November." 

Hon. M. J. Dowling, Secretary of the National Republican League of the 
United States : "Pursuant to a resolution unanimously adopted at the meeting 
of our Executive Committee in the city of St. Louis, I have the honor of tender- 
ing you the best wishes of the National Republican League, representing a 
volunteer army of working Republicans numbering more than two million- 
members, many of whom will cast their first vote for McKinley and Hobart " 

Hotel Brotherhood, Philadelphia, Pa. : " The colored people rejoice at 
your nomination." 

Charles IL Holmes, President, Boston, Mass.: "Chelsea organized & 
McKinley and Hobart Club to-night. Motto: 'Clear the track for Major 
Mack, for the good old times are coniing back.' " 

E. C. DeWitt, President, and seven hundred members, Marquette Club, 
Chicago : "We pledge you our most active and earnest support in the campaign 
upon which we are entering, to the end that the People's Choice may prevail, 
and the principles of the Grand Old Party, as set forth in the platform on which 
you stand, may be established." 

74 



Capt. John K. Gowdy, Chairman Republican State Executive Committee, 
Rushville, Indiana: "Accept my hearty congratulations. The people haver 
spoken and they will speak again in November." 

Hon. A. M. Higgins, President of the Indiana Republican League: 
"Indiana thirty for McKinley at St. Louis. She will add three ciphers in 
November. " 

Hon. Scott Swetland, Chairman Republican State Central Committee, 
Vancouver, Washington: "In the name of the Republicans of the State of 
Washington, I wish to heartily congratulate you." 

Hon. William B. Thorpe, Secretary California McKinley League, Sacra- 
mento: "California will give you a rousing majority " 

James A. Doyle, William Armsti'ong and Henry Roberts, Anaconda, Colo- 
rado: "Accept our hearty congratulations from the greatest gold camp on 
earth." 

■John S. Lentz, President Massachusetts Car Builders, and S. C. Blackell,. 
President Massachusetts Mechanics, in session at Saratoga: "Hearty con- 
gratulations, fifteen hundred strong, to our next President." 

C. A. Perkins, Chairman National Committee American College League: 
"We will do everything in our power to roll up a big majority for the Advocate 
of Protection." 

Hon. Samuel J. Roberts, Chairman Republican State Executive Commit- 
tee, Lexington, Kentucky, from Convention Hall, St. Louis: "We are shout- 
ing ourselves hoarse. The hopes of many years have resulted in great joy." 

Hon. Frank M. Laughlin, Chairman Republican State Central Committee, 
San Francisco: "The Republicans of California congratulate you and 
promise their unqualified support at the polls of our united party pledged to 
to Protection and Prosperity." 

William J. Muston, President, Pittsbui'g, Pa. : "The Americus Republican 
Club extends to its honored fellow member sincerest congratulations, and 
pledges its heartiest support, and a repetition of its triumphs of 18S8 in great 
parades." 

L. F. Cain, President, Elwood Indiana: "The Elvvood City Republican^ 
League Club and 4,000 factory laborers send greetings to the next President of 
the United States." 

J. K. Merrifield, Union Depot, Kansas City, Missouri: "The laboring: 
men nominated you. Now they will elect you." 

W. A. Rodenberg, and J. D. Gerlach, St. Louis: "Hearty congratulations. 
The Twenty-First Illinois Congressional District will give you 5,000 majority." 

J. T. McNeely, Cripple Creek, Colorado: "The Republican Party still 
lives and thousands of Colorado Republicans are panting for the chance to vote 
for you." 

Hon. Eben S, Draper, Chairman, for the Massachusetts delegation, and 
one hundred others, Buffalo, New York: "The Massachusetts delegation, re- 
turning from the most important Republican National Convention since the 
war, congratulate you upon the unanimity and enthusiasm of your nomina- 
tion, and congratulate the country upon having at this crisis a leader who in 
private life, public experience and administrative ability commands universal 
confidence. We take this occasion to pledge our unswerving loyalty and 
hearty devotion until the votes of all sections of the country proclaim you 
President of the United States." 

Harvey H. Lindley, Chairman, and Daniel T. Cole, Vice Chairman, Califor- 
nia delegation St. Louis: "At a meeting of the California delegation, this 

75 



morning, we were authorized to extend our united and cordial congratulations 
on yo'.ir nomination, and to assure you of California's electoral vote." 

Messrs. Charles AV. Parrish, Chairman, CliarlesB Hilton, Eobect A, Booth, 
Charles S. Moore, John W. Heldmon, John F. Cal .veath, Charles H. Dodd, 
Wallace McCamant, Convention Hall, St. Louis t * The Oregon delegation 
congratulates the Nation on your nomination. We pledge every possible 
effort for your election.". 

Col. I. N. Walker, National Commander Grand Army of the Republic, 
Indianapolis, Indiana: "Earnest congi-atu.lations. Our patriotic people 
ai^'.ays do the right thing." 

Captain George C. James, National Commander of the Union Veteran 
Legion, of the United States, Cincinnati, Ohio: "Sincere congratulations and 
best wishes for the happiness of both Mrs. McKinley arid yourself." 

Capt. W. H. Chamberlain, Commander of tlie Loyal Legion of Ohio, Cin- 
cinnati: "Dear Sir and Companion— WHiile politics by the organic law ha$ no 
place in this Order, there is no prohibition against the expression of natural 
pride when the people of the United States thrice make requisition upon the 
Ohio Commandery for a Chief Magistrate of the Eepublic." 

Major J. L. Dobbin, President Union Veteran Legion, Minneapolis, 
Minnesota: "Your comrades of tlie Union Veterans Legion of this city have 
by resolution directed ma to tender you their hearty congratulations, pledge 
their earnest support, and say that the North Star State will give you 50,000 
majority next November." 

Edward Everett Henry, Chicago: "Our beloved commander, General. 
Ruth vrford B. Hayes, one day said to me: "Mark it, some day Major Mc- 
KirJoy will be President.' In the name of our famous old regiment I give you 
twerty-three cheers. Your election is assured.' 

D. V. Wherry, Shelby, Ohio, whose message .s one of forty or fifty from 
Major McKinl^y's old comrades of the Twenty-Third Ohio, in all parts of the 
country; "Another battle fought, another victory won, with the old Twenty- 
Third well to the front. Congratulations." 

Hon. William Lawrence, President Wool Growers National Association, 
Bellfontaine, Ohio: "Congi-atulations. A million wool growers have occa- 
sion to rejoice. Better pay our gold to our wool growers than to send it to 
foreigners." 

William G. Markham, Secretary of the National AVool Growers Associa- 
tion, Rochester, New York: "I congratulate you, as well as the wool growers 
and our country, at tlie result in St. Louis." 

Charles Emory Smith, Philadelphia, Pa: "You have my profound and 
heartfelt congratulations at your majestic triumph in a great cause of which 
you are the chosen leader." 

H. H. Kohlsaat, Chicago: "Congratulations for yourself and wife.** 

Joseph B. McCullagh, Editor of the Globe Democrat, St. Louis: "Accept 
my heartiest congratulations." 

M. H. DeYoung, San Francisco, Cal. : "Hearty congratulations. Hope soon 
to greet you with the title of President." 

R. C. Alexander, Editor of the Mail and Express, New York: "On the 
eve of a notable and an honorable victory I send greetings and congratulations- 
I think I will speak with reverence in saying we have fought a good fight, and, 
better still, have kept the faith." 

Edward Rosewater, Proprietor of The Bee, Omaha: "Accept sincere 
<jongratulations. AVe propose to hold Nebraska in line and feel confident she 
vill stand by Protection and Sound Money against all combinations.'* 

76 



George Alfred '''o^msend, the noted newspaper correspondent "Gath," 
from Gapland, Maryland. "The army correspondents laid their corner-stone 
on South Mountain, Maryland, while you were being nominated. Come back 
here where you served hot coffee to your regiment and dedicate our memorial 
as President-elect." 

Hon. R. ^?r. Horr, The Tribune, New York: "I desire to express my great 
satisfaction with the entire work of the St. Louis Convention. Accept my 
hearty congi-atulations." 

D. C. O'Malley, Proprietor Daily Item, New Orleans: "The vote of 
Louisana, next November will indicate that when it comes to McKinley and 
Protection there is no North and no South, but a common cause and country. 
Success to the Republican ticket." 

4 John Addison Porter, Editor Evening Post, Hartford, Connecticut: "You 
will receive the electoral vote of the Nutmeg State by the largest majority ever 
cast for a Presidential candidate 

Melville D. Landon, "Eli Perkins," New York: "Now the mills will start, 
workmen work, deficit cease, debt decre,ase, importations diminish, gold stay 
at home, and prosperity come back again. Arise and sing!" 

James Arkell, "Judge," New York City: "Not you alone, but the whole 
country is to be congratulated on your nomination." 

W. W. Baker, Editor, Portland, Oregon: "The Farmer and Stockman 
begs to congratulate you and the country." 

W. W. Burch, Editor American Sheep Breeder and Wool Grower, Chicago: 
"AVe voice congratulations and godspeed from one million American wool 
growers." 

POLITICAL CLUBS AND PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATIONS. 

Thirty-Fifth Ward Republican Club, Cleveland, Ohio. 

The Lenox Republican Club, New York City. 

Union League Club, San Francisco, California. 

Frederick Douglass Republican Association, Pittsburg, Pa. 

Lincoln Club, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Gattling Gun Battery, Cleveland, Ohio. 

McKinley Club, Detroit, Michigan. 

National Potter's Association, Trenton, New Jersey. 

Sixth Ward Republican Club, Baltimore, Maryland. 

Grerman- American Lincoln Club, Baltimoi-e, Md. 

McKinley Club, Davenport, Iowa. 

Blaine Club, Twenty-Fifth Assembly District, New York City. 

Young Men's Republican Association, Jersey City, N. J. 

Republican Club, Buffalo, New York. 

Citizens' McKinley League, Thirty-Seventh Ward, Phil&delpliia, Pa. 

McKinley and Hobart Campaign Club, Baltimore, Md. 

The Ohio Club, Cleveland, Ohio. 

Republican Club, Twenty-Second Assembly District, New York City. 

McKinley League, New York City 

Republican Club, Jacksonville, Florida. 

Italian Benevolent Society, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

McKinley League, Thirty-Fifth Assembly District, New York City. 

Republican Club, New Brighton, Pa. 

77 



3IcKinley Club, Homestead, Pa. 

Marion Club, Indianapolis, Pa. 

McKinley Club, Frankfort, Kentucky. 

McKinley League, Mt. Vernon, Ohio. 

McKinley Club, Hartfoi*d, Connecticut. 

Union Veterans League, Minneapolis, Minn. 

Eepublican Club, Covington, Kentucky. 

Hepublican State Editorial Association, Jackson, Mich. 

iiepublican National League, Chicago. 

'German-American Republicans of the Northwest, St. Paul. 

<!!ar Builders' Convention, Saratoga, New York. 

McKinley Ratification Meeting, Donaldsonville, La. 

Company G, 10th O. N. G., Wauseon, Ohio. 

Union League Club, San Francisco, California. 

McKinley League, Sixteenth Assemby District, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

'Tippecanoe Club, Cleveland, Ohio. 

New Amsterdam Republican Club, New York. 

'Champion Lodge, Knights of Pythfas, Columbus, Ohio. 

Garfield Club, Hamilton, Ohio. 

McKinley League, New York. 

.American College Republican League, New York. 

McKinley League, Onondaga County, New York, 

Republican State Committee, Birmingham, Alabama. 

liusiness Men's Republican Club, Zanesville, Ohio. 

A. C. Harmer Club, Fifth Congressional District, Pennsylvania. 

Pittsburg Coal Exchange, Pittsburg, Pa. 

Sand Plains Republican Club, Parkersburg, "West Virginia. 

McKinley and Hobart Club, Ottumwa, Iowa. 

Fifteenth "Ward Republican Club, Milwaukee, "Wisconsin. 

3IcKinley Club, Spokane, Washington. 

R. C. McKinney Club, Hamilton, Ohio. 

Republican Executive Committee of Green County, Xenia, Ohio. 

McKinley Guards, Urbana, Ohio. 

Hepublicans Eighth Congressional District, "Williamsburg, Ky. 

McKinley League, Richmond County, New York. 

McKinley League, Philadelphia, Pa. 

McKinley Club, "Wa! 'a "Walla, "Washington. 

McKinley League, Albany County, New York. 

Sixth "Ward Central Republican Club, Baltimore, Md. 

Republican Committee, Fulton County, Johnstown, N. Y. 

Seventh AVard Republican League, Kansas City, Mo. 

•Central McKinley Club, Knoxville, Tenn. 

McKinley Ratification Meeting, North Tonawanda, N. Y. 

McKinley Club, Ottawa, Illinois. 

McKinley and Hobart Club, "Wahoo, Nebraska. 

McKinley and Hobart Club, Dewitt, Nebraska. 

McKinley Club, Plattsmouth, Nebraska. 

Unconditional Republican Club, Albany, N. Y. 

Thirty-Fifth Ward McKinley Club, Cleveland, Ohio. 

Home Market Club, Boston, Massachusetts. 

Young Men's Republican Club, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Lincoln Club, Twenty-Sixth Ward, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

78 



McKinley Ratification Meeting, Oneida, N. If . 

McKinley Ciub, GarrettsvUle, Ohio. 

Ohio Ckib, Norfolk, Nebraska. 

Standard Republican Club, Fifth "Ward, Louisville, Ky. 

Etghth Ward Hebrew Political Club, Pittsburg, Pa. 

McKinley Club, Wellsville, Ohio. 

Hamilton Club, Chicago, 111. 

McKinley Club, Owensboro, Ky. 

United Republican Association, Philadelphia. Pa. 

Oassius M. Barnes McKinley Club, (hnhrie, Oklahoma. 

Francis F. Williams Eighteenth AVard Republican Battery, Brooklyn, K. T. 

Charlestown Republican Club, Bunker Hill, Boston, Mass, 

Twentieth Assembly District Republicans, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Republican Commi,ttee Queen's County, Minnesota, N, Y. 

McKinley Club, Indianapolis, Ind. 

Detroit McKinley Club, Detroit, Midi. 

Albany Republican League, Albany, Mich. 

McKinley Club, Nero Springs, Iowa. 

Lafayette Battery, Jersey City, N. J. 

Buffalo Republican League, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Montauk Club, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Quigg Club, New York, N. Y. 

•Continental League, San Francisco, Califoraia. 

TJnion Ltague Club, Philrdelpliia, Pa. 

Stalwart Republican Club, Nashville, Tenn. 

McKinley Republican Club, Pullman, Illinois. 

Commercial Travelers' Republican Club, Indianapolis, Indiana, 

Robert J. Wright Republican Club, New York. 

Republican Central Committee, Atoka, Indian Territory. 

People of Canton, Penneylvania. 

McKinley Club, Fort Dodge, Iowa. 

McKinley Club, Ashtabula, Ohio. 

McKinley Club, Lyons, New York. 

3Iadison County McKinley Club, London, Ohio. 

Young Men's Republican Club, Jamestown, New York. 

McKinley Club, Lockport, New York. 

West Side Republican Club, New York. 

Yonng Men's Thurston Club, Omaha, Nebraska. 

McKinley Club, Newark, New Sersey. 

McKinley Club, Hartford, Connecticut. 

Citizens' McKinley League, Thirty-Seventh AVard, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Republican Executive Committee, Fulton Couuty, Atlanta, Georgia. 

Cleveland Gray's, Cleveland, Ohio. 

Forsyth Republican Club, Winston, North Carolina. 

McKinley Republican League, Muscotah, Kansas. 

McKinley Republican League, Lockport, New York. 

Market Men's Republicen Club, Boston. Massachusetts. 

Ross County Republican Executive Committee, Chillicothe, Ohio. 

McKinley Club, AA^estfield, New York. 

Chemung County Republican Committee, Elmira, New York. 

National Republican Club, Washington, I/. C. 

79 



Young Men's Republican Club, Hebron, Nebraska. 

McKinley Club, Green Falls, New York. 

Young Men's Republican Club, Zanesville, Ohio. 

Columbia Club, Indianapolis, Ind. 

Fellowsliip Club, Chicago, Illinois. 

Maine Woolen Manufacturers' Club, Sanford, Maine. 

Young Men's Republican Club, Lebanon, Indiana. 

McKinley Club, AVaco, Texas. 

Lincoln Club, Waco. Texas. 

Marquette Club, Chicago, Illinois, 

McKinley and Hobart Club, Chelsea, Mass. 

Black Belt McKinley Club, Selma, Alabama. 

McKinley Club, Covington, Indiana. 

McKinley and Hobart Club, Canton, New York. 

McKinley League, Fordham, New York. 

Republican Central Committee, of Clarke County, Springfield, Ohia 

Frederick Douglass Republican Association, Pittsburg, Pa. 

Blaine Club, Twenty-Fifth Assembly District, New York City. 

R. B Hayes Club, Twenty-Third O. Y. I., Cleveland, Ohio. 

McKinley Club, Springer, New Mexico. 

Marion Club, Indianapolis', Indiana. 

Republican Club, Twenty-Second Assembly District, New York City., 

German American Lincoln Club, Baltimore Md. 

Cambro-American Republican Club, Columbus, Ohio. 

Michigan Club, Detroit, Mich. 

Young Men's Republican Tariff Club, Pittsburg, Pa. 

Canby Post, No. 27, G. A. R., Ilwaco, Washington. 

Thomas B. Reed Club, Biddeford, Maine. 

Francis Harper League, Pittsburg, Pa. 

McKinley League, Mt. Vernon, New York. 

McKinley Club, Frankfort, Kentucky. 

Republican League, Jacksonville, Florida. 

West End McKinley Republican Club, Washington, D. C. 

McKinley League, Syracuse, New York. 

McKinley Club, Evansville, Indiana. 

Capital City McKinley Club, Albany, New York. 

McKinley Club, Peru, Indiana. 

Newark Republican Club, Newark, Ohio. 

Young Men's Republican Association, Jersey City, N. J. 

Republioan Club, Modelia, Minnesota. 

McKinley Club, Springfield, Illinois. 

Tacoma Republican Club, Tacoma, Washington. 

Cuba Post, Grand Army of the Republic, Cuba, N. Y. 

Garfield Club, Urbana, Ohio. 

French-Anierican Republican Club, Marlboro, Mass. 

The Americus Republican Club, Pittsburg, Pa. 

Hardin County Republican Committee, Kenton, Ohio. 

Elwood Republican League, Elwood, Ind. 

Union Republican Club, Washington, D. C. 

McKinley Ratification Meeting, New Orleans, La. 



80 



MCKINLEY'S SPEECHES IN AUGUST. 



A FORMAL CALL FROM A DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE. 

A delegation af sixty prominent Democrats from Pittsburg, who composed 
a Citizens' Committee to escort Hon. William J. Bryan, the Democratic can 
didate for President, from Canton to that place, arrived thereat 10:20 Monday 
morning, August 10th. The party headed by Mr. James Hawley, Chairman of 
the Allegheny County Committee, and Hon. Morris Foster, made an informal 
call upon Major McKixley. Mr. Foster, who acted as spokesman for the party 
upon arriving at the McKinley residence, said that he believed that any can- 
didate for the Presidency was worthy the greatest respect of every one, 
regardless of party affiliations. The members of the delegation had, therefore, 
come to pay their respects and make a friendly call as American citizens. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen; I am glad of this opportunity to greet 
you and gi-ateful for the generous words spoken by your Chairman, represent- 
ing another political organization. We are all of us proud of our country 
and our country's history and we should all be determined to make this Gov- 
ernment in the future as in the past the best Government in the world. From 
you who disagi-ee with me politically it is very pleasant to have assurances of 
personal good will. I thank you." (Applause.) 

The members of the Committee were then presented and shook hands 
with Major McKinley. Accompanying the Committee were Hon. Richard 
P. Bland and wife, of Missouri, who had a pleasant chat with Major and Mrs. 
McKinley. 

COMRADES OF THE TWENTY=THIRD OHIO. 

The surviving members of the Twenty-Third Eegiment Ohio Volunteer 
Infantry, called upon their fellow comrade Major McKinley on Wednesday after- 
noon, August 12th, to tender him the manifestations of their personal regard. 
This is the regiment in which Major McKinley served, and with which he, by 
bravery, under the commission given him by President Lincoln, won the rank 
which his title designates. The visitors for the most part live in the northeastern 
section of Ohio. The roll was called in front of the Court House at 2:30 o'clock 
and a line of march formed to the residence of Comrade McKinley. The regi- 
ment is justly celebrated for its excellent record ; for the number of its hard 
fought battles, including South Mountain, Antietam, and General Sheridan's 
battles in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 ; for the great number of it,? killed and 
wounded, and for the men noted in war and civil life that it enrolled. Among 
these are such men as General William S. Rosecrans, General Edward P. Scam- 
MON, General Rutherford B. Hayes, Colonel Stanley Matthews, General 
James M. Comly, General Russel Hastings, General Robert P. Kennedy and 
Major William McKinley. It has been depleted in numbers by the "Grim 
Monster," but such as do survive are bound together by ties of fond affection, 

SI 



made doubly strong because of the absence of those who ah-eady have answered 
to roll call on the other shore. Of the field officers two survive, General Rose- 
CRANs of California, and General Hastings of Bermuda. The spokesman of the 
occasion was Capt. John S. Ellen, of Willoughby, Ohio. He is by birth an 
Englishman,, but by adoption an American of the warmest patriotism, who, 
when the fli-st gun of the Civil War was fired, quickly answered the call of his 
imperiled adopted country. He spoke briefly but touchingly of the services of 
Major McKiNLEY and the regard in which he is held by all surviving members 
of the Twenty-Tliird Regiment, regardless of politics, and his remarks were 
heai'tilf applauded. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

^'Captain Ellen and My Comrades op the Twenty-Third Ohio: This call 
kt my home of the surviving members of the old regiment with which I served 
for more than four years is a most gracious act upon their part, and gives me 
peculiar and especial gratification. As I look upon this little body of men assem- 
bled about me, I painfully realize that this is indeed but a remnant of the old 
Twenty-Third which thirty-five years ago had 1,010 sturdy young men on its rolls 
ready for duty and that was twice recruited to the total number of 2,200 sol- 
diers. When I reflect, I say, that here are gathered possibly less than 100, and 
that these are one-fourth of the surviving members of our glorious old regiment, 
i am vividly reminded how rapidly the years ai*e passing, and how with them are 
dying our old associates of the war. The survivors are from twenty-four States 
of the Union. Some of our members are in the Territories and one I know 
resides on the other side of the water. But wherever they are, or whatever 
vocation they may be engaged in, they all love the old regimental organization 
and their service therein, which to them is the proudest tiling on earth. (Ap- 
plause.) We had a great regiment ; great in its field officers ; and great in the 
character of the rank and file that constituted it. Our hearts go out with 
tenderness and love, I am sure, to the first Colonel of our I'egiment, General 
William S. Rosecrans, to his distant home in California. (Great applause.) 
We all remember his splendid discipline and his gentler qualities as well, and 
we remember with what pride we marched under his command in West Virginia 
in 1861. We remember, too, that other Regular Army officer, that splendid sol- 
dier, General Edward P. Scammon. (Cheers.) He was not a general favorite 
in our earlier days, for we thought his discipline severe aAd his drill very hard, 
but after the battle of South Mountain, General Scammon was the most popular 
man in the regiment. (Great applause.) We knew then for the first time 
what his discipline meant and what strength it gave to us on the battle- 
field. Nor can we assemble here as we have to-day without recalling the 
third Colonel of the Twenty-Third Ohio, who was longest with us, Ruth- 
erford B. Hayes. (Great cheering.) He was beloved by every man of the 
regiment, and no braver officer ever led soldiers to battle. Nor Stanley 
Matthews, the first Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment — the great jurist 
and lawyer. (Applause.) Nor can we forget Comly, glorious old Comly, 
(cheers and cries of 'Nor Mrs. Hayes,') nor Mrs. Hayes, the faithful friend of 
the regiment. We have with us to-day, and we are glad to see him, for I 
remember in 1864, after his dreadful wound, we did not suppose we would have 
him with us again — we have with us to-day that brave soldier and comrade, 
Colonel Russell B. Hastings. (Applause.) I was glad to note in the eloquent 
speech of my comrade, Captain Ellen, that the old Twenty-Third Ohio stands 

82 



-.11 1896 as it stood in 1861, for the country and the country's flag. (Great ap- 
plause and cries for 'IMgKixley, too.') Nobody could have doubted that, know- 
ing the metal from which this old regiment was made. My comrades, you are 
just as loyal to your country now as you were loyal to your country then, and 
as you stood from 1861 to 1S65 for the preservation of the Government of the 
tJnited States, you stand to-day just as unitedly for the honor of the Govern- 
ment and preservation of its credit and currency. (Cheers.) Xo government 
can get on without it preserves its honor. In the darkest days of the Eevolution, 
lloBERT Morris, its financier, went to one of his friends in Philadelphia, after he 
had involved himself in debt for a large sum on account of the Government, and 
said to him, 'I must have $1,500,000 for tlie Continental Army.' His friend said: 
MVhat security can thee give, Robert?' He answered : 'My name and my honor.' 
Quick came the reply: 'Robert, thou slialt have it.' (Applause.) And from 
that hour until now the country's honor has been our sheet anchor in every 
storm. Lincoln pledged it when in time of war he issued paper money. 
'Every dollar of that money,' said he, 'shall be made as good as gold,' and we 
will never break his solemn pledge. I do not know what you think about it, 
but I believe it is a good deal better to open the mills of the United States to the 
labor of America than to open the mints of the United States to the silver of 
the world. (Great cheers and cries of 'You are right.') "Washington told us 
over and over again that there was nothing so important to preserve as 
the Nation's honor. He said that the most important source of our strength 
was the public credit, and that the best method of preserving it was to use it as 
sparingly as possible. And it was left to Rutherford B. Hayes, our old Colonel, 
as President of the United States, to execute that promise by the resumption 
of specie payments in 1879. (Cheering and applause.) When Robert Morris 
said that he had nothing to give but his honor, there were behind his word three 
millions of struggling patriots. To-day behiHd the Nation's honor are seventy 
millions of freemen, who mean to keep the honor, integrity, and credit of this 
Government unquestioned. (Great applause.) I thank you, comrades, for this 
call. No event of the year has given me higher pleasure. Nothing gives me 
greater pride than to have been a private soldier of the Union with you in the 
Civil War. (Applause.) I bid you welcome to my home. You already have 
my heart ; you have had it more than thirty years. (Great cheering.) It will 
give Mrs. McKixley and myself both much pleasure, I assure you, to have all 
of you come into our home." (Applause and three cheers for McKinley.) 



THE ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTH OHIO. 

The survivors of the One Hundred and Fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer 
Infantry, who had been holding their annual reunion on the old Fair Grounds 
in Massillon, arrived in Canton at eleven o'clock Thursday morning, August 
13th, to meet and greet their comrade, Major McKixley. They came over in 
six electric cars, bringing their wives and children with them. They got off 
the cars at the corner of North Market and North streets and proceeded up 
Market in a body, headed by a band and a number of local veterans as an es- 
cort. There were two hundred survivors in line. Mrs. Major McKinley Tent 
No. 1, Daughters of Veterans, of Massillon, accompanied them. The Tent was 
organized eleven years ago, and then christened for Mrs. McKixley. The vis- 
itors altogether numbered nearly four hundred. They awaited the appearance 
of Major McKixley on the front porch of his residence, and when he stepped 

83 



out to meet them tliree cheers were given him with hearty will. Col. William 
MoNAHAN, of Cleveland, then made a brief but stirring address, expressive 
of the respect and good will of himself and fellow comrades. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"Comrade Monahan and Members of the One Hundred and Fourth Ohio 
Regiment: I assure you that it affords me pleasure to meet and greet my old 
associates of the Civil War here at my home. It is very kind on your 
part to make this call, following your reunion in the neighboring city of Mas- 
aillon. I am glad to know that you continue annually to hold your reunions. 
There is, however, always a sad side to these meetings of old soldiers, for at 
every recurring meeting and each new roll call it is disclosed that one and 
another of your members who met with you the preceding year is not present 
to answer to his name. Every year reminds us that death is marching through 
our ranks. The survivors of tlie war number now less than a million, and yet 
there were enrolled 2,800,000 men who were willing to dedicate their lives to 
the country. (Cheers.) We are now thirty-five years from the beginning of the 
war and about thirty-one from its close. The bitterness of the conflict has long 
since disappeared. The resentments have gone out of the hearts of the old 
soldiers and the people who supported them on both sides. Several incidents 
occured last year throughout the country — to me incidents of great significance 
— which brought to every patriotic citizen much gi-atification. I refer, first, to 
the meeting cf the Grand Ai-my of the Republic in the city of Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, (applause) wliere, with their boundless hospitality, the citizens of that 
city of the South cordially welcomed you to their homes. You could not have 
been more generously treated in any city of the North than you were in the city 
of Louisville on the other side of the river. Next, at Chfckamauga, where the 
Government of the United States has dedicated that sacred field as a National 
Park, the ex-Union and ex-Confederate soldiers, who years before had fought 
in deadly conflict, the one against the other, met and with fraternal feelings 
marked the places where their respective commands fouglit and fell, and con- 
secrated that historic battlefield as a memorial to the Union forever. 
(Great cheers.) And then, a few days later, in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, 
the boys in blue and the boys in gray (applause) met and talked over 
their battles once more, all pledging their united loyalty in the future to the 
Government of the United States and the preservation of its flag. (Great 
applause.) Sectionalism has given place to a true National spirit and patriot- 
ism has smoothed the asperities of partyism until the preservation of the 
National honor constitutes the great aim and purpose of all patriotic American 
citizens. (Loud applause.) It is not, my fellow comrades, what we say of you, 
as Mr. Lincoln put it at Gettysburg, it is what you did tliat will live. You 
have won for yourselves a great name and for your children a rich legacy, 
because you served faithfully in the holiest cause in which mankind ever 
engaged — the cause of the Union, of freedom, and of civilization — in a cause 
which has done much for mankind everywhere. (Choers.) What we want 
to do now is to wisely care for the present and sacredly guard the future. You 
can not upbraid yourselves for any lack of patriotism in the past. The future 
is now our sacred trust and let us see to it that tlie Government which was pre- 
served through your valor and sacrifice and that ofthe millions of your comrades 
shall be preserved forever. (Tremendous applause.) Preserved not only to the 
people of the present in all its honor and glory, but preserved unimpaired to 

84 



those who are to come hereafter. I thank you, my comrades, for the warm 
and eloquent expressions of good will spoken by your chairman. His tribute 
moves me deeply. I know something of the services of the oldw One 
Hundred and Fourth Ohio in war, and I know something of your behavior 
as citizens in peace, for I believe that this entire regiment came from the 
counties that for years constituted the Congressional district which by your 
partiality I had tlie honor so long to serve in the House of Representatives. 
Stark, C*lumbiana, Summit, and Portage Counties furnished the brave men 
whose names are found on the honor roll of your regiment. (Applause.) I 
know many of your comrades personally and see before me many familiar 
faces whose presence here revives touching memories of the past. I knew 
your distinguished Colonel very well. God bless dear, brave old Colonel Riley, 
(Applause.) I am glad to welcome you hei*e and shall be gratified to meet 
each one of you personally ; and I am certain that Mrs. McKinley will be 
equally pleased to meet the ladies who are connected with the old One 
Hundred and Fourth Ohio." (Great applause.) 

At the conclusion of the Major's speech. Rev. W. H. Smith introduced Miss 
BER'tiiA Martin, of Massillon, in behalf of the Mrs. Major McKinley Tent No. 1, 
Daughters of Veterans, who spoke briefly in expression of the respect and 
•i-steem they bore the gracious lady for whom their Tent is named. Major Mc- 
Kinley responded by welcoming the young women to his home also, and 
invited them, and all the ladies of the party, to visit Mrs. McKinley, who was 
seated within the house. They did so, after shaking hands with him, and the 
veterans were also each greeted by him personally. 

THE COLORED RIFLES OF CLEVELAND. 

The L' Overture Rifles of Cleveland, the crack colored independent military 
organization of the State, came to Canton from Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday 
morning, August 17th, to congratulate Major McKinley and confer upon him 
the first honorary membership they had ever tendered. With the organiza- 
tion came three hundred colored citizens of Cleveland and about one hundred 
from Akron. They arrived in Canton, via the Cleveland Terminal and Valley 
Railroad at 11:45 o'clock, in ten coaches. They were met at the depot by the 
Canton Troop and a reception committee of fifteen colored citizens of Canton. 
The Rifles, headed by the Excelsior Band of twenty pieces, were about 
seventy-five in number, with Capt. J. C. Rhodes commanding, and made a fine 
appearance. The visitors filled the yard at the McKinley home and when 
the Major appeared upon the veranda thousands of hearty cheers resounded. 
Hon. H. C. Smith then stepped forwai*d and spoke as follows: 

"Major McKinley: The Cleveland L' Overture Rifles, and friends from 
Cleveland and Northern Ohio, have gathered here to-day to pay you a brief visit. 
We visit you, sir, not only because you have been made the standard bearer of 
the greatest political party in this country, but particularly because of our sin- 
cere admiration and high esteem for one whom the people we represent know 
by experience is the friend of every honest and upright American, whatever his 
class or vocation. The Afro- American has watched with the eye of an Ameri- 
can eagle every act of especial interest to him in your wonderful career as a 
soldier and statesman and thoroughly appreciates your love of country and 
fidelity to its best interests. This is the reason for our sincere admiration 
and high esteem. We know that in you we have a true friend and feel that our 
position is not unlike that of other American workingmen who believe in those 

85 



principles so splendidly enunciated in the. St. Louis platform of the Republican 
Party. The Afro-American of Cleveland has placed a new star in his crown of 
progress in the organization and equipment of the Cleveland L'Overture Rifles, 
whose splendid appearance in the Centennial parade held there recently, that 
you honored with your presence, and which you reviewed, challenged the admi- 
ration of all our beautiful city's residents who witnessed the demonstration. 
Tluit the people are proud of the organization is obvious and that it was possible, 
under the circumstances, to make so much progress in the Rifles' few months, 
did not seem possible at the time of their organization. Apparently insur- 
mountable barriers blocked the Company's pathway, but they have all so far 
been successfully removed. Without any desire to detain you, or those here 
assembled, permit me to assure you, in conclusion, that you have no more sin- 
cere or energetic friends among the many in ail this broad land of ours, 
than are to be found among the Afro-Americans, and that on the third of 
November next you will have a practical demonstration of this fact such as 
you have never before had an opportunity to note. We wish you that wealth of 
good health, happiness and success that you so richly merit, and which in a 
very large degree you have enjoyed in the past. In conclusion we wish to pre- 
sent to you a certificate of honorary membership in theL' Overture Rifles. It is 
the first one ever issued, and it is with great pleasure I tender it to you." (Ap- 
plause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Smith and My Fellow Citizens: It -gives me pleasure to meet and 
greet this company of Rifles and my colored fellow citizens of the city of Cleve- 
land and Northern Ohio. I rejoice to learn from your eloquent spokesman 
that your race this year, as in all the years of the past, stands faithfully by the 
Republican cause, which I believe, with you, is now as always, the cause of 
our country. (Applause.) I do not forget — no man can forget — that whether 
in war or in peace, the race which you represent never turned its back on the 
glorious old Stars and Stripes. (Great applause, and cries of 'Hurrah for 
McKixLEY.') AVhen the great Civil War commenced no man could tell what 
its outcome would be in its effects upon colored people. There were some 
who believed that it must result in the abolition of human slavery. There wei'e 
many who believed otherwise. The grand result, grander than the great major- 
ity of the people had supposed possible, was the immortal Proclamation of 
Emancipation by the best friend you ever had, Abraham Lincoln, (tremendous 
cheering) whose name you should and will always cherish and revere forever. 
James G. Blaine once said that tlie first instinct of an American was for 'equal- 
ity, equality of j)rivilege and equality in political power.' This sentiment long 
ago found expression in the Constitution of the United States, for the people of 
the country placed in that great instrument, whei'e it had never been before, 
and where under God it shall ever remain, civil and political equality to every 
citizen everywhere beneath the flag. (Applause.) I congi-atulate you, 
ladies and gentlemen, upon the splendid progress that your race has made 
since emancipation. You have done better, you have advanced more rapidly, 
than it was believed possible at the time. You have improved greatly 
the educational advantages which you have had. Your people every- 
where, North and South, are accumulating pi-operty, and to-day you stand as 
among the most conservative of tlie citizens of this great Republic. 
(Applause.) I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart upon the ad- 
vancement you have already made, and I sincerely wish for you and your race, 

8f? 



fellow citizens of a common country, the highest realization of your hopes ar... 
prayers. (Great cheering.) We are now engaged in a political contest, and 
your presence in such vast numbers here to-day evidences the interest which 
you have in the public questions that are now absorbing the attention of the 
American people. We have a great country and we must keep it great. The 
post which the United States must occupy, both in industries and wages and 
in the integrity of its credit and currency, must be at the head of the 
nations of the earth. (Loud applause.) To that place of honor the people of 
the country must restore it this year. They have the ojiportunity they have 
wished for since 1892 , will they meet it in this year, 1896? (Cries of 'They 
will.') We want in the United States neither cheap moiey nor cheap labor. 
(Great cheering.) We will have neither the one nor the other. (Applause.) 
We must not forget that nothing is cheap to the American people which comes 
from abroad when it entails idleness upon our own laborei'S. (Tremendous 
applause.) We are opposed to any policy which increases the number of 
the unemployed in the United States, even if it does give us cheaper foreign 
goods ; and we are opposed to any policy which degrades American manhood 
that we may have cheaper goods made either at home or abroad. (Great 
applause.) Having reduced the pay of labor, it is now proposed to reduce the 
value of the money in which labor is paid. (I^aughter and applause.) This 
money question presents itself to me in this homely fashion: If the free 
coinage of silver means a fifty-three cent dollar, then it is not an honest dollar. 
(Applause.) If free coinage means a one-hundred-cent dollar, equal to a gold 
dollar, as some of it advocates assert, we 'viU not, then, have cheap dollars, 
but dollars just like those we now have and as hard as ever to get. (Applause.) 
In this case free coinage will not help the debtor or make it easier for him to 
pay his debts. (Cries 'That's right.') My countrymen, the most un-American 
of all appeals observable in this campaign is the one wliicli seeks to ai-ray labor 
against capital, employer against employe. (Aj)plause.) It is most unpatriotic 
and is fraught with the greatest peril to all concerned. We are all political 
equals here — equal in privilege and opportunity — dependent upon each 
other, and the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the other. (Great 
cheering.) It is as Mr. Lincoln said to a Committee from the Working- 
men's Association of New York City, in the campaign of 1864: 'Property 
is the fruit of ' labor. Property is desirable ; it is a positive good 
in the world. That some should be rich shows tliat others may become rich, 
and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let no man who 
is homeless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and 
build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from 
violence when built.' I thank you, my fellow citizens, for this call of greeting 
and congratulation. I thank you for the honor you have conferred upon me in 
electing me the first honorary member of your organization. I assure you it 
will give me pleasure to meet each of you personally. " (Great applause.) 

After he concluded Major MoKinley stepped upon the lawn and shook 
hands with each member of the delegation. During the reception of the visitors 
Mrs. McKtNLEY occupied her customary seat just within the doorway. 

PENNSYLVANIA PROTECTIONISTS. 

The people of New Castle and Ellwood, Pennsylvania, on Saturday morn- 
ing, August 22nd, constituted the largest delegation that has called on Major 
MoKinley since the crush of the afternoon and evening of the day on which he 

87 



was nominated. The visitors came to Canton on the Cleveland Terminal and 
Valley Railway from Akron to which city they came on tlie Pittsburg and 
Western Railway. In point of numbers the delegation was variously estimated 
at from 2,000 to 3,000. They came in three sections of twenty-five cars. They 
were prepared to have a jubilant time, and brought with them the means to 
secure it. A calliope was transported from New Castle and a small brass 
cannon added to the noise of the marchers, who were enthusiastic in their cries 
for McKixLEY. A band and drum corps from New Castle, a band from East- 
brook and a band from Ellwood City kept the marchers in step as they tramped 
from the Valley station to the McKinley residence. In spite of drizzling rain the 
men from the Keystone State seemed to enjoy the occasion and were eager to 
proceed to the home of the man whom they had come to see and so highly 
respected and admired. Headed by the members of the Canton Reception 
Committee and the Canton Troop the visitors were escorted to the home of 
Major McKinley at 11 ;20. The bands played choice selections, the drum corps 
pounded vigorously, the calliope sounded its notes and blew, as the motto said— 
"For Protection and Sound Money," while the little cannon boomed a hearty 
salute The delegation brought many banners with them. Some of them read 
as follows : "Sixteen to One— Sixteen Men out of Work to One who Has Employ- 
ment." "Wb Rally Ai-ound Our Standard Bearer for Sound Money and Protec- 
tion." "We are Part of the 200,000 Men who are Out of Wcrk in the Keystone 
State." "Down wiih the Anarchist.", "Free People, but Never Free Silver." 
"All who Voted for Abraham Lincoln in 1860 are Asked to Join Us." "No Ten 
Cents A Day Chinese Monetary System for Us." " AVe Want Our Idle 
Furnaces, Factories and Mills Started, and Not to Make the Silver Miners 
Rich." "Give Us the Prosperous Days of the McKinley Tariff." When 
Major ;McKinley was escorted from the house to the veranda a monster 
tin horn, twenty feet in length was carried near him, borne aloft by the 
strong arms of tin mill employes of New Castle and sounded in his honor. 
Many of the visitors wore white tin caps and hats, with tin plumes. The 
Keystone State badge of tin dangled from hundreds of the lapels of the coats 
of the visitors. Mr. F. E. Poister, editor of the Ellwood Citizen, spoke in behalf 
of the visitors from his town, as follows: " Major McKinley : I have the 
honor of representing the Republicans of Ellwood City who have come here 
to-day to pay their respects to him whom the great Republican Party 
has lifted upon its shield and who will guide the Republican hosts to 
victory. I represent, first, th se to whom honor first is always due, those with 
whom you shared the hardships of the march, battle and si?ge, and who with 
you cheerfully offered their liv.^s as a precious sacrifice, that not one star in the 
diadem of liberty might be lost. These are the men wlio love to speak of you 
as Comrade McKinley, and who will again be found in the mighty phalanx 
which you will lead to victory next fall. I represent the workingmon, for we 
are a community of workingmen. There are here employes of the Frankfort 
•Steel Works, the Ellwood Tin Plate Company, where, in spite of the predictions 
of the calamity howlers, we are to-day making tin of a quality second to none 
in the world. We have with us also the employes of the Ellwood Weldless Tube 
Company, where is made the famous weldless steel tubing used in the manu- 
facture of bicycles. Last, but not least, we have with us our farmers, all 
imbued with but one ambition, and that to loave nothing undone so that our 
great State of Pennsylvania may roll up such a majority next fall as has never 
been recorded in the annals of the Republican Party. As I have stated, we are 
a party of workingmen, and as such we have brouglit with us a small memento, 

88 



■and I now take pleasure in introducing Hon. E. A. Toni), who will present it.'* 
llr. Todd thon made a few eloquent remarks which were heartily applauded. 
In concluding he presented Major McKinley with a handsome cane made of 
one piece of weldless cold drawn steel tubing beautifully finished, the head of 
which was composed of twenty-six pieces with a suitable inscription. After 
a selection had been played by the New Castle Band, Colonel Oscar L. Jackson- 
mounted a chair, motioned for quiet, and said: "Major McKixley: Your 
fellow citizens of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, have made this visit ta 
show their respect for you, and to tender you their congratulations on 
your nomination for the Presidency of the United States. They mean by 
this to express their friendship for you personally, their belief in the 
principles you represent, and their desire for your success in the approach- 
ing election. Although coming from another State, our homes are not 
far distant. Most of our people are as familiar with your public career 
as are those of your own district, and we are proud of our right to call you 
neighbor as well as fellow citizen of this great country. Your nomination was 
not obtained by self-seeking, neither was it the result of accident, nor the 
impulse of the moment. For years no other citizen was so well known, and 
■none so often mentioned throughout the whole land as a suitable candidate for 
that great office. So certainly had public sentiment designated you as the fit 
man for the place, that the convention seemed to meet only for the purpose of 
ratifying the choice. This large delegation represents all classes of citizens of our 
country— farmers, merchants, students, professional men, and the workingmcn 
from mines, mills and factories. But we are one in sentiment, and arc hero to 
ihonor you as the most distinguished friend of the American system of protec- 
tion. We know that this system benefits all classes equally, and we have 
■enjoyed a fair share of the prosperity that attends it. Under it our country has 
been developed, w-ealth has accumulated, and the wages paid by the great 
industrial plants at New Castle, Ellwood and other towns have brought plenty 
to many thousands of homes. When I recollect how your earlier efforts to 
orotect the tin plate industry were met with the assertion that none could be 
made in this country, I know you will take pleasure in the fact tliat we have 
now in successful operation at New Castle, in our county, the largest tin plate 
mill in the w^orld, (cheers) with an annual capacity of almost a million boxes. 
Thei-e are with us to-day a large number of men, employes in those works, to bear 
t'.'stimony to these facts. (Cheers and cries of 'That's so.'"^ It is true we hs.ve a 
great country, but it is not doing as well as it should. With others we have felt 
the bad effects of the unfriendly legislation which followed the election of ISOi'. 
Ever since that time we have been looking forward to this year with the settled 
faith that the American people would surely correct in 1896 the mistake of 1892. 
(Cheers.) It will not admit of doubt that a large majority are in favor of 
protection. This is the real question to be settled this year, and we want to 
do our part to keep it before the people. We consider the much talked of 
money question a false issue raised by designing men for selfish purposes. 
Republicans are not asking for any change in this respect. For many years we 
liave had good money and we only want it kept good. (Cheei-s.) The United 
States is a great country, with great resources, plenty for all ; no other people 
Tiave wealth, prosperity and intelligence so generally distributed among all. AVe 
claim in all that is best, to occupy a leading place among the greatest nations 
of the earth. Undoubtedly, then, we should have the money that is recognized 
as the best the world over We are not the people that should go back to cheap, 
poor money. (Cries of 'No,' 'No.') And when that question does come up 

^ 89 



we want all we have 'to be good, equal to the best.' Ours was a loyal county, 
her sons fought and fell on every great battlefield of the war. She cherishes 
the memory of the fallen and over one hundred of the survivors are here to-day 
to give you a comrade's greeting. It will cheer their declining years to see 
once more a statesman of ripe experience as President, who also saw long and 
hard service in the field. (Prolonged cheers.) Having confidence in your ability 
and integrity, and believing you will give the country an Administration 
guided by principles of morality and religion, that will tend to make the 
United States a greater and more pi'osperous people, we sincerely desire your- 
S'^ccess. We feel justified in saying that in this contest Pennsylvania will be 
found, as in the past, on the side of honesty and obedience to tlie law, and in 
favor of protection to all American industries. We confidently believe you 
will receive her electoral vote by a majority surpassing tliat ever before given, 
in a Presidential election by any State." (Continued applause and cheering 

As Col. Jackson ended a mighty cheer went up from the great host that- 
had assembled. When Major McKinley mounted the chair on his front 
porch, his appearance was the signal for prolonged and hearty cheering. Hats 
and umbrellas were thrown in the air, banners were waved aloft, and the little 
Keystone cannon boomed another joyful salute. It was some time before Major 
McKinley satisfied his visitors by bowing to the right and the left in answer 
to the ovation. When quiet reigned, he said: 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Col. Jackson and My Fellow Citizens of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania t 
It gives me great pleasure to welcome the citizens of a neighboring State to my 
city and home. I note with much satisfaction the message wliicli your 
eloquent spokesman brings me, that the people of Pennsylvania have lost none 
of their devotion to the great principles of the Republican Party, and tliat this 
year they will give to the Republican National ticket an unrivaled popular 
majority. (Cries 'We will do that, all right.') Nor am I surprised, my fellow 
citizens, that this is so. We have had three years of bitter experience under a 
policy which the Republican Party has always opposed — and there hasbeen^ 
nothing in that experience to win us to the opposite policy, but everything to 
increase our devotion to the old policy of protection which we steadfastly 
uphold. (Applause.) I am glad to meet my distinguished friend. Colonel 
Jackson, with whom I served in the Congi-ess of the United States, and to 
again hear his voice, as I have often heard it in the halls of the National House,,, 
and to listen to his eloquent arguments for the doctrines of the Republican 
Party, the success of which involves the highest prosperity and welfare of the 
American people. (Cheers.) My fellow citizens, the earnest thought of the 
people this year is directed to the present condition of the country and how 
best to improve it. This is the thought of every mind and the prayer of every 
soul. Nobody is satisfied with our unfortunate business condition, and the- 
great body of the people want and mean to have a change. What shall the 
change be? Shall it be the continuance of the present Democratic Party under 
another leadership, (cries of 'No,' 'No,') a leader advccating all the policies of 
the Democratic Party which have been injurious to the American people, and 
rejecting all that are good, wholesome and patriotic and that have received 
the approval of the people of the country? (Great cheering and cries of 'No.') 
The wing of the Democratic Party which controlled the Chicago Convention is 
just as much in favor of free trade as the wing of the Democratic Party in con- 

90 



trol of the National Administration. (Applause and cries of 'That's so.') Most of 
those prominent in that convention were conspicuous leader's in the assault 
upon our industries and labor made by the Fifty-Third Congress. They are 
devoted to this un-American and destructive policy and were chiefly instru- 
mental in putting upon the statute books the tariff legislation which has 
destroyed American manufactures, checked our foreign trade, and reduced the 
demands for the labor of American workingmen. (Loud cries of 'You are 
right.') It stands opposed to Reciprocity, too, the splendid results of which 
were so signally manifest during the administration of President Harrison. 
(Applause.) The people of the country have condemned the lines of the policies 
of this party in these particulars in every election since 1892. ('That's so,' and 
applause. ) They are only waiting now for a chance to register again and all 
along the line, individually and unitedly, their opposition to this free trade 
heresy in the general election next November. (Applause and cries of 'We 
can hardly wait till the election, Major.'.- If there was, therefore, but one 
question — that of protection against free trade — we have it just as sharply 
drawn and as distinctively presented through the Chicago Convention wing of 
the Democratic Party as we had it through the united party in 1892 ; and a tri- 
umph this year for the Chicago platform would be as signal a victory for free 
trade and for the continuance of that Iv-'e tiade legislation which has already 
resulted so disastrously to the American people and entailed upon the Govern- 
ment deficient revenues and upon the people diminished trade abroad and 
starvation wages at home. (Cries of 'That's so.') This wing of the Democratic 
Party believes not only in free trade, but it believes in free silver, at a ratio of 
sixteen to one. (Cries of 'Down with free silver.') Having diminished our 
business they now seek to diminish the value of our money. Having cut wages 
in two, they want to cut the money in which wages are paid in two ; and we will 
not have either the one or the other. (Tremendous cheering, and cries of 
'Hurrah for McKinley.') The other wing of the Democratic Party is patriot- 
ally standing for the public honor and is opposed to free silver, because it 
believes that such a policy would disturb existing values, contract the currency 
of the country by depriving us of the use of gold, and put us solely upon a silver 
basis, thus creating widespread panic and bringing to every American interest 
serious injury. My fellow citizens,will the people turn to that party for relief (cries 
of 'No,' 'No,') whose policy has created the conditions underwhich they are suf- 
fering and from which they are crying out to be relieved ? (Renewed cries of 
'No, never.') What we want now is greater activity and confidence. AVith 
business confidence restored, money will invest in private and public enter- 
prises, and when so invested labor will be well rewarded and the toil of the hu 
bandman will be fully requited. (Great applause.) Without confidence mon;-^ 
will be hoarded and the wheels of industry stopped — and what that meanc 
many of the men before me know. (A voice, ' We have lived on sunshine too 
long.') Then the farmer, the merchant, the manufacturer, the laborer and 
those of all other useful occupations alike will suffer. Gentlemen, confidence lies 
■at the foundation of all active and successful business operations. We cannot 
restore confidence by a proposition to debase the currency of the Government 
and scale down public and private obligations. Such a policy strikes at 
the very life of credit and business. It makes it harder to get money for legi 
imate and worthy enterprises by deliberately proposing to pay back what has 
been already borrowed in a depreciated currency. (Cries of 'You are right.') 
The people, irrespective of party, will unite in defeating any financial scheme 
that will in part confiscate the earnings of labor in the savings banks and build- 

.91 



!ng and loan associations and the investments of the people in insurance compa- 
nies ; and I do not believe that the American people will ever consent to have 
the pensions of our soldiers reijudiated by a single farthing. (Great cheering 
and applause.) The people want neither free trade nor free silver, (Cheers.) 
The one will degrade our labor, the other our money. (Applause.)* We are 
opposed, unalterably opposed, to both of them. We have tried the one in h, 
modified form with disastrous results to every American home and we are 
strongly opposed to making experiment with the other. (Applause.) My fel- 
low citizens, the people have a chance this year to take the Wil , n law off the 
statute books and put a good Ajnerican protective tariff law in its place (enthu- 
siastic cheering and cries of ' They will do that, all right') which will provide 
adequate revenues for the Government and gladden the home of every Ameri- 
can workingman. (Great applause and cries of 'Hurrah for Mckinley.') 
They have a chance this year to prevent a free silver law from going on the 
statute books and thus keep our money of every kind now in circulation aa 
good as gold and preserve our National name above reproach. (Cries of 'They 
wil do that, too.') If they do not improve the chance now, they wi I not have 
another opportunity for four years. Does the workingman, the farmer, the 
manufacturer, want the Wilson law to remain on the statute books four years 
longer? (Cheering and loud cries of ' No,' 'No.') Do they want reciprocity 
which will give us a foreign market for our surplus agricultural and manufac- 
tured products to remain off the statute books four years more ? (Renewed 
cries of 'No.') Do tliey want any law enacted which would compel them to 
receive for their wages and products dollars worth less than one hundred 
cents? (Cries of ' No.') These are questions which every voter in the country 
must answer in his conscience and by his vote next November. Gentlemen, 
what shall the answer be ? (Cries of ' Elect McKinley,* followed by tremen- 
dous cheerinj^.) I thank you most heartily for this call, for your expressions of 
good will, and for the assurance whicli Col. Jackson has given me of your unfal- 
tering support of Republican principles. It will afford me sincere plcasui-e, I 
assure you, to meet every ono of you personally." (Applause and cheering.) 



BUSINESS AND POLITICS. 

On Monday, August 24th, a delegation of 800 workers from the East Liverpool 
potteries came to --all on Major MoKinley. They arrived on a special train 
via the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railroad and were met at the depot 
by a detachment of the Canton Troop and members of the Canton Reception 
Committee. Headed by these the visitors were escorted to the McKinley resi- 
dence where a selection by the East Liverpool Band was given, after which 
M jOx' McKinley appeared, in company with the Reception Committee of the 
visitorSa At sight of him the men of the potteries sent up cheer after cheer, 
and hats and flags, and canes and umbrellas were whirled in the air in the storm 
of enthusiasm which greeted him. Mr. William Searls, Marshal of the visiting 
delegation, presented Mr, W. V. Blake, Mayor of East Liverpool, who 
spoke for the visitors in a pleasing and forcible manner, as follows : 

"Major McKinley: Under the Wilson-Gorman compromise which opened 
up the floodgates of our ports to foreign producta nine million dollars worth 

f crockery have been imported, every dollar's worth of which, or a large 
percentage of it, could and would have b i made in America under the pro- 
tective policy. Instead, our factories have been limp and helpless. Under 

92 



these unhappy conditions the artisans have been thrown out of employment, 
have had to put up with an inordinate amount of discomfiture, scarcely capa- 
ble of keeping their heads above water. The potters want to see prosperous 
times again, and to this end they will vote for sound money, a protective 
policy and William McKiNLEY. (Cheers.) Your peerless record in Congress, 
your ardent devotion for the cause of protection, your toil for everything 
American, your principles, which have never been vacillating or ambiguous, 
your life itself, which has been an open book wherein is written in letters of 
gold the faithful performance of every duty, have all endeared you to the hearts 
of the people of this great Nation, and especially to the hearts of this delega- 
tion." (Great applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" Mr. Blake and My Fellow-Citizens : I could not conceal, and would not, 
the pleasure which this visit on the part of East Liverpool and Columbiana 
County gives me. I have been deeply moved by the warm and generous words 
spoken by Mr. Blake and nothing gives me greater pleasure, nor more satisfac- 
tion, than to feel that I have behind me, supporting the great principles for 
which I stand, the workingmen of my old Congressional district. (Applause.) 
The message of good will so eloquently expressed by your fellow workman has 
profoundly touched me. I can not forget that you trusted me in my young 
manhood, and that you have ever since followed me with unfaltering confidence. 
I remember the first time that I ever looked into the faces of an East Liverpool 
audience twenty years ago, and that then, as now, I was speaking for 
sound money and a protective tariff. (Great cheering.) Your spokesman has 
alluded most graciously to what he terms the services I have given to your 
great industry. If I have done anything to bring work to you or my fellow man 
anywhere and make the condition of the American workingman easier, that is 
the highest reward I seek, and greater reward no man could have. There is 
no industry in the United States, my fellow citizens, which demands or 
deserves protection through our tariff laws more than yours. It is a business 
requiring technical and artistic knowledge, and the most careful attention to 
the many and delicate processes through which the raw material must pass .to 
become the completed product. Down to 1862 the pottery industry of the United 
States had achieved little or no success and had made but slight advancement in 
a practical and commercial way. At the close of the low tariff period of 1860 
there was but one white ware pottery in the United States, with two 
small kilns. Decorating kilns were not known. In 1873 encouraged by the 
tariff and the gold premium, which was an added protection, we had increased 
to twenty potteries, with sixty kilns, but still had no decorating kilns. (Ap- 
plause.) The capital invested was $1,020,000, and the value of the product was 
$1,180,000. In 1882 there were fifty-five potteries and two hundred and forty-four 
kilns, twenty-six of which were decorating kilns, with a capital invested of 
$5,076,000, and an annual product of $5,299,140. The wages paid in the potteries 
in 1882 were $2,387,000 and the number of employes engaged therein, 7,000. You 
have twenty-eight potteries in the city of East Liverpool to-day. The difference 
between the wages of labor in this country and of foreign countries you know 
better than I can tell you. When the law of 1883 was enacted, I stated on the 
floor of Congress, that if the duties of fifty-five and sixty per cent were 
given, as recommended by the bill then pending, in less than five years the 
quality of American ware would be improved, the quantity increased, and the 
price to the consumer sensibly diminished. This prophecy has been more than 

93 



verified. (Cries of 'You are right.') In 1882, an assorted crate of ware so\(t 
for $57, and the same— only a better ware— is now sold for less than $40. In 
1864 we paid for the same crate of ware $210.00. On decorated ware the 
immense benefit to the consumer is even more apparent. The selling price of 
all decorated ware was from fifty to one hundred per cent higher in 1852 than 
in 1892. In 1852, with the low revenue tariff duty of twenty-four per cent and 
no domestic manufacture, an assorted crate of foreign white ware sold at $95. In 
1892, with the fifty per cent duty and domestic competition, and with large pot- 
teries which are the pride of the country employing labor and capital at home, 
buying our own raw material, the same assorted crate was selling for $49. (Ap- 
plause.) What the state of business has been during the past three years, you 
know better than I can tell you. Without any actual knowledge about it, I think 
I can safely say that you have not been so prosperous as you were prior to 1893. 
(Cries of 'You are right, we haven't,') and that tlie past three years have been 
years of unsteady and irregular employment, reduced wages, less work and less 
pay. (Cries of 'Yes.') In 1892, my fellow citizens, the people were busy at 
work and gave little attention to politics. They will not be so indifferent again. 
(Applause, and cries of 'You are right they won't.') They have more time 
this year (laughter) than they had four years ago and are giving earnest atten- 
tion and active work to the National contest which is engaging the country. 
We are growing more and more to recognize the great necessity of 
every citizen giving personal and serious thought to his political duties. 
Business men, workingmen and the people generally are coming to realize 
.lat business and politics are closely related ; that bad politics means bad 
.usiness, and that politics can not be neglected without endangering our 
occupations, our earnings, and our labor. We have had some distressing 
experience in this direction which has taught us that if we do not keep our 
business, our business will not keep us (gi-eat cheering) and if somebody else 
•does our work we will have no work to do ourselves. (Applause.) The people 
are settled in one purpose this year— they will not tolerate the surrender of 
any more of their business and will as quickly as possible recover what they 
have already lost. They know how they lost it, they know when they lost it, 
and they know how to get it back— and they mean to do it. (Temendous 
applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') Another gi-owing sentiment 
among the people is that much as they are attached to old party associations, 
and hard as it is to leave their old relations, they would rather break with 
their party tlian to break up their business (great applause and cries of 'You 
bet' ) that party ties are not as strong as business ties and that the good of the 
country is more to be desired than the success of any political party. Men 
will no longer follow party when it leads away from business success and 
prosperity ; when its policies cripple our industries and the earning power of 
labor. They will not follow a party whose policies imperil our financial 
integi-ity and the honor of the country. (Applause.) We are learning another 
thing, my fellow citizens. Indeed, we know it already— that no matter what 
kind of money we have, we cannot get it unless w^e have w^ork. (Cries of 
'You are right. Major.') Whether it is poor money, or good money, whether it 
is gold, or silver, wo can not get one dollar of it unless we have employ- 
ment for our hands and heads. (Enthuiastic cheering and waving of 
]iat8.) And we know anotlier thing— that when we have work, we would rather 
have our pay in good, honest dollars, dollars of the highest purchasing power, 
which will not depreciate in our hands over night, but that will be good every 
• day and every year and everywhere. (Renewed cheering and cries of 'Hurrah 

94 



tor McKinley) We can not help labor by reducing tlie value of the money in 
which labor is paid. The way to help labor it to provide it with steady work 
and good wages, and then to have those good wages always paid in good 
money, (cheers) money as sound as the Government and as unsullied as th< 
American flag. (Tremendous applause.) I thank you, my fellow citizens, for 
this call, and for the warm messages brouglit to me by your spokesman and b< 
assured it will afford me pleasure to meet and greet every one of my old 
friends of East Liverpool, Wellsville, and East Columbiana County, for I can 
nevet forget — I would not forget — the unwavering kindness and support I 
4iavealwa<ys had at your hands." (Great cheering.) 

WHY THE FARHERS SUFFER. 

On the same day, AugHst §4thj Knox County, Ohio, sent a delegation of 
visitors to the home of Major ]tlcMi5JtEY. It was composed of farmers chiefly, 
and numbered about five hundred people. The delegation arrived a short time 
after the East Liverpool potters had scattered through the city, and before 
Major McKixLEY had been to lunch. The spokesman of the Knox County men 
was H. B. Critchfield, ex-City Solicitor of Mt. Vernon. He briefly referred 
to the recent fusion of several parties in that county, but declared that Major 
McKinley would receive a majority of the votes cast in November. 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Critchfield AND My Fellow Citizens: It gives me gi-eat pleasure 
to meet and gi-eet the citizens of Knox County in the city of Canton and at my 
home. I am glad to welcome my comrades of the Grand Ai-my, my fellow 
citizens who are engaged in agricultural interests, and those of all other occupa- 
tions who are here assembled this morning. Your meeting demonstrates that you 
have a keen interest in the public questions which are now engaging the people 
of the United States, and that you want this year, as you have always 
wanted in the past, to vote for those principles which will achieve the gi-eatest 
good and highest welfare of the country. I am glad especially to meet tha 
farmers of Knox County, for the farmers of the United States are the most 
conservative force in our citizenship and civilization (applause) — a force that 
has always stood for gj^.d government, for country, for liberty, and for honesty. 
(Great applause.) Whatever the farmer is suffering to-day is because his com- 
petitors have increased in numbers, and his best customers are out of work. 
(Applause and cries of 'You are right.') I do not know that we can decrease 
the number of your competitors, but with the adoption of a true American pro- 
tective policy we can set your best custoiners to work. (Tremendous cneermg, 
«,nd cries of 'Hurrah for McKirfLEY.') We have suffered in our foreign trade 
and in our domestic trade both during the past three years. The frvmers have 
suffered in their export trade and they have likewise suffered in the home mar- 
ket. Under the Eepublican tariff law of 1890, we imported in 1894, 55,152,585 
pounds of wool valued at .$6,107,438. In 1895, under the Democratic tariff law, 
we imported 206,033,906 pounda of wool, valued at $33,770,159. Thus $20,000,000 
worth more of wool were imported under the Democratic tariff law than under 
the Eepublican tariff law. The imports of woolen goods in 1894 amounted to 
$19,391.8.50, and in 1895 to $57,494,863 ; an increase in foreign woolens of $36,103,- 
018. So we lost heavily in both directions, our total loss in these two items 
in a single year amounting to $63,765,734, all of which was against the American 

95 



farmer. From the reports of the Treasury Department at Washington, we 
find that there were 47,373,000 sheep in the United States in 1892, valued at 
$125,909,000. On the first of January, 1896, there were 38,298,000 sheep in the 
United States, valued at $65,000,000— a decrease of 9,000,000 in the number of 
sheep, and of $60,000,000 in value. Not only this, but $2,200,000 worth more of 
shoddy was imported in a single year under the Democratic tariff law than under 
the Republican tariff law. The total loss directly and indirectly in these four 
items to the American wool grower and the wage earners in American 
woolen factories, therefore, is more than $125,000,000. Is it any wonder, 
my fellow citizens, that sheep husbandry is no longer profitable? So, too, 
with other agricultural products. During the last seventeen months of 
the operations of the Republican tariff law there were imported into 
this country 140,080 tons of hay, and during the first seventeen months 
of the Democratic tariff law there were imported 373,864 tons. The 
Wilson law gave the foreign producers a market for 233,000 tons more than 
they had enjoyed in the last seventeen months under the Republican tariff law. 
This loss exceeds $2,000,000. The total wheat, barley, rye, oats and corn crops 
for 1893 amounted to 3,556,900,000 bushels. The amount of this product 
exported was 132,364,000 bushels, or a little less than four per cent of 
the total product, so that more than ninety-six por cent was consumed 
at home. The great bulk was consumed by your own fellow citizens, 
your own natural consumers and customers. In 1891 and 1892 we 
exported $1,420,000,000 worth of agricultural products. In 1895 and 1896, the 
first two years under the Democratic tariff law, we exported $1,101,000,000 
worth. We exported, therefore, $319,000,000 worth less in the two years under 
the Democratic tariff law than in the two years under the Republican 
tariff law. Depression in agriculture has always followed low tariff legislation. 
It was so after the tariff of 1846 ; and it has been so under the tariff of 1894. 
On December 2, 1851, President Fillmoke in his message to Congress of that 
date, alluding to the condition of the country, and especially the effect of the 
tariff law of 1846 upon the interests of the American farmer, said: 'The values 
of our domestic exports for the last fiscal year, as compared with those of thD 
previous year, exhibit an increase of $43,646,322. At first view this condiiion 
of our trade with foreign nations would seem to present the most flattoring 
hope of its future prosperity. An examination of the details of our exports, 
however, will show that the increased value of our exports for the last fiscal 
year is to be found in the high price of cotton which prevailed during the last 
half of that year, which price has since declined about one half. The value of 
our exports of breadstuffs and provisions, which it was supposed the incentive 
of a low tariff and large importations from abroad would have greatly aug- 
mented, has fallen from $68,701,921 in 1847 to $26,051,373 in 1850, and to $21,- 
848,653 in 1851, with a strong probability, amounting almost to a certainty, of 
a still further reduction in the current year. The aggregate values of rice 
exported during the last fiscal year, as compared with the previous year, also 
exhibit a decrease amounting to $460,917, which, with a decline in the 
values of the exports of tobacco for the same period, made an aggregate 
decrease in these two articles of $1,156,751.' The policy which dictated a low 
rate of duties on foreign merchandise, it was thought by those who promoted 
and established it, would tend to benefit the farming population of this coun- 
try by increasing the demand and raising the price of agricultural pi*o- 
ducts in foreign markets. The foregoing facts, however, seem to show 
incontestably that no such result has followed the adoption of this 

96 



policy. Then in his Message a year later he said: "The prosperity 
and wealth of every nation must depend upon its productive industry. 
The farmer is stimulated to exertion by finding a ready market for 
his surplus products and benefited by bemg able to ex-.hange them, without 
loss of timv, or expense of transportation for the manufactures viiiich his com- 
fort or convenience requires. This is always done to the best advantage where 
; portion of -.e community in which he lives is engaged in other pursuits. Mr, 
Buchanan in his Message to the Thirty-Fifth Congress, speaking on the same 
subject, said : 'In the midst of unsurpassed plenty in all the productions and in 
all the elements of National wealth we find our manufactures suspended, our 
public works retarded, our private enterprises of differ t kinds abandoned and 
thousands of useful laborers thrown out of employment and reduced to want. 
The revenue of the Government, which is chiefly derived from duties on 
imports from abroad, has been greatly reduced, while the appropriations made 
by Congi-ess at its last session for the current fiscal year are very large in 
amount.' This is a description of the condition of the country under the low 
tariff law of 1846, and no better one could be written of the condition of the 
country under the tariff law of 1894. (Applause.) Can the farmer be helped by 
the free coinage of silver? (Cries of 'No,' 'No.') No, forever no, my fellow- 
citizens ! (Cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') He can not be helped because, if 
the nominal price of grain were to rise through an inflation of the currency, 
the price of everything else would rise also and the farmer would be relatively 
no better off than he was before. (Cries of 'That's right, Major.') He would 
not get any more real value for his grain than he gets now, and would suffer 
from the general demoralization which would follow the free coinage of silver. 
You can not help the farmer by coining more silver ; he can only be helped 
by more consumers for his products. You can not help him by free trade, but, 
as I have shown, he can be hurt and seriously hurt by the free importation of 
of competing products into this country. Better a thousand times enlarge the 
markets for American products, than to enlarge the mints for the silver pro- 
duct of the world ! (Tremendous applause and cries of 'You are right.') You 
might just as well understand now that you can not add value to anything by 
diminishing the measure of the value with which the thing is sold or excanged. 
(Great cheering and cries of ' Hm-rah for McKinley.') If you can in- 
crease the value by lowering the measure of value, and you want to 
benefit the farmer, then make the bushel smaller, the pound lighter, 
and declare a less number than twelve a legal dozen. (Great laughter.) The home 
market is the best friend of the farmer. It is his best market. It is 
his only reliable market. It is his owti natural market. He should 
be protected in its enjoyment by wise tariff legislation and his home market 
should not be permitted to be destroyed by lessening the demand for American 
labor and diminishing the pay of American workingmen, and thereby di- 
minishing the demand for agi-icultural products. (Applause.) The sugar in- 
dustry should be cultivated and encouraged in the United States. Diversify 
the products of agi-iculture and thus you will have additional employment for 
your land. The only way to help the farmer is to increase the demand for his 
farm products. This can be done by preserving a home market to him and by 
extending our markets, which we did in 1892-'94, under the Reciprocity provi- 
sions of the tariff law of 1890. (Great cheering.) The best consumers ft)r the 
American farmer are those at home. They consume eighteen times as much of 
the products of the American farm as the foreign consumer. Their earning 
power has been cut ou in the past two years so that it makes our home market 

97 



less desirable. Prosperity of manufactures is inseparable from the prospei-ity 
of agriculture. Se all our wheels in motion, set all our spindles whirling, set 
all our men at wori: on full time, start up the idle workshops of the country, 
bring back confidence and business, and the farmer will at once feel the influ- 
ence of the greater demand for his products and in the better prices he will 
receive. (Great applause and cries of ' You are right.') He wants to be pro- 
tected by wise tariff legislation from the competition of the other side; and 
then he wants the mines and mills and factories of his own country humming 
with busy industry, employing well paid workmen who can buy and consume 
his products. When he has consumers, he wants, too, unquestioned coin that 
he will know is good not only to-day but will be certain to be good every day 
of the year and in all countries of the world. (Long and enthusiastic applause.) 
Free silver will not cure over-production nor under-consumption. (Laughter.) 
Free silver will not remove the competition of Russia, India, and Ai-gentine 
Republic. This competition would remain if you would coin all the silver in 
the world. Free silver will not increase the demand for your wheat or make a 
single new consumer. You don't get consumers through the mints. (Great 
laughter and cries of * No,' 'No.') You get them through the factories. 
(Cries of ' That's right.') You will not get them by increasing the circulation 
of money in the United States. You will not get them by increasing the man- 
ufacturing establishments in the United States. (Tremendous cheering and 
cries of 'Hurrah for McKixley.') 'Plant the factory by the farm,' said 
Jackson, and that is as wise now, and as applicable now, as when the hero of 
New Orleans said it years ago. Tlie best tiling now is for the farmer to have a 
factory for his neighbor. (Laughter and applause.) Would it not be better to 
have a factory alongside of you than to have another farm alongside of you ? 
(Laughter and cries of 'Yes.') I have no fear of the farmers — the most con- 
servative and the most sturdy citizens of our splendid civilization. They are 
not easily misled. They have no aim in politics but an honest one. In 1892 
when free trade was the battle cry of our opponents, it was said then that the 
farmers would follow this heresy, but it was not so. It was the cities which 
followed the free trade heresy, not the country. (Cries of " That's right.") The 
country voted for protection while the gi*eat cities did not. So this year they 
will vote against free trade and free silver; they will vote for a home market 
and for a dollar as good as gold in every mart and market of the world. (Great 
cheering.) I thank you, my feUow citizens, for this call. It is a great compli- 
ment to have had you travel this long distance to bring me messages of good 
will and «congi"atulation. Old Knox County, in every contest in which I have 
been engaged, has been firmly and unfalteringly my friend, and it will give me 
sincere pleasure to meet so many of her citizens, one and all, personally." (Long 
continued applause.) 

STARK COUNTY TEACHERS. 

The beautiful anthem "America" was sung with much earnestness and beauty 
by 250 public school teachers of Stark County at the residence of Major 
McKiNLEY on Wednesday afternoon, August 26th. They came to make a formal 
eall on the Republican standard bearer and had marclied up North Market 
Street and filed into the yard at tlie McKinley home. Here they ranged them- 
selves in the form of a horseshoe, with the concave facing the porch on which 
Major McKiN'LEY stood, significant of the good fortune they wished him. 
Messrs. C. L. Hiner and J. M. Sarver were chosen as spokesmen and the 
former responded as follows : 

98 



"Major McKinley: As President of the Stark County Teachers' Institute 
it becomes my pleasant privilege to offer to you greetings of congratulation in 
behalf of the teachers who are before you. When a man becomes famed for 
the services he has rendered the country he no longer belongs to a party, and 
M-hen he is chosen President of the United States he belongs to all the people. 
We come to-day to bring our testimonial of the high regard we have for you as a 
distinguished citizen and as one who has always been much interested in 
the advancement of the work in whicli we are engaged." (Applause.) 

Mr. Sarvek then said : 

"Major McIvrxT.py: Our appearance here this afternoon is meant to be the 
testimony of our \iif:h regard for you as a man and a citizen of this county. Your 
utterances in support of popular education are well known to us and the 
teachers of the county are not forgetful of their influence upon the public mind. 
In the corridors of the High School Building has been erected a tablet to one 
of the truest, noblest women who ever dedicated her li^'e to the cause of educa- 
tion. The Board of Education, highly appreciciting her splendid services, 
have inscribed upon this tablet: 'Thirty years of glorious w^ork praise her.' 
Hundreds of her former pupils, now filling honorable stations in life, do rever- 
ence to her memory. Slie was their guide, their helper, their inspirer. The 
teachers of Canton wishing to honor her memory procured a life-sized portrait 
which now adorns my office. A look into that placid, gracious countenance is 
an inspiration to me as to all the many others who loved her as their 
teacher, their friend, and their co-worker. As truly of her as of any other 
woman, could it be said, 'To know her was a liberal education.* To-day we 
cherish the fond memory that this lovable woman, this superb teacher, was 
Miss Anna McKinley, whose brother is the candidate of a great political party 
for the Presidency of the United States. Under these circumstances we felt 
jissured that the teachers of Stark County would receive a cordial reception, 
although their call is somewhat tardy. Now, as never before, character is 
stamped at its true worth. The teacher is firm in the conviction that the chief 
•end of administration is the formation of character that will insure praise- 
worthy conduct. Special effort is made in every well regulated school to culti- 
vate intelligent patriotism and to foster civic virtues. Concrete examples are 
most conducive to results in dealing with children, and it is fortunate that 
teachers need not revert to the dim past to find men whose life and character 
are worthy of emulation. We of Stark County count ourselves most happy 
that we need not go beyond the limits of our own time, or outside of our own 
county and city, to find a distinguished citizen whose character and integrity 
have been unchallenged by his bitterest political foes, after many a hard fought 
contest. We conclude by saying that no other portion of the globe equal in 
area to Stark County has approached our jubilation at your nomination and 
can surpass us in appreciation of your public and urivate life." (Applause.) 

Major McKinley then stepped forwara, acknowledged the applause given 
him by a profound bov,% and with visible emotion spoke most tenderly of his 
sister, to whom Mr. Sarver had referred. He said: 

" President Hiner, Mr. Sarvek and Ladies and Gentlemen : I count it both 
a compliment and an honor to receive this call from the educators of Stark and 
adjoining counties. I can not jiermit to pass unnoticed — for I was deeply moved 
by it — the beautiful tribute paid by Mr. Sarver to a member of my own family 
and one whom I dearly loved. Pier splendid work is to me a sweet and perpet- 
ual memory, and I gratefully acknowledge the influence she exerted upon my 

99 



life. (Applause.) Her noble example has been to me a constant inspiration, 
and that the Board of Education of Canton should have so honored her memory- 
is most gi'atifying to her family and friends. I have gi'eat respect, an increas- 
ing respect, foi- the schoolmaster. My great-grandfather was a teacher cf a 
private school in New Lisbon, Columbiana County, this State, long before our 
public school system was established, and since that time some member of the 
family, some one of his direct descendants, has always been engaged in that 
honorable occupation. (Applause.) As I said I have always felt the greatest 
respect for the schoolmaster, and now and then possibly a fear of him. (Laugh- 
ter.) Still my earliest and pleasantest recollections are associated with him, 
and I bear him only gratitude and love. In early day^ as now he was the con- 
spicuous figure in the community, commanding the confidence and often win- 
ning the affection of both pupils and parents. The teacher ordinarily was the 
ideal of the pupil. In him to their minds was embodied all that was good, 
true and gi-eat — and this was always true when the pupil loved the teacher. 
If the instructor would enjoy the friendship of his school, he must not only 
have a good head but a good heart. As I look back upon my school days, 
I grow in the conviction that my best teachers were not the most agreeable 
teachers. (Laughter.) I have come to realize that what was less attractive 
to me was most important to my education. That you have a deep interest 
in politics goes without saying, for you of all others have a true conception 
of the best interests and grandeur of the Republic. If you would show 
your love for country, therefore, you must give considerate attention to Ameri- 
can politics. While this call is without any political significance, it is at least 
an assurance that your minds are not wholly absorbed with literary pursuits, but 
that now and then they are turned to considerations of a political character. 
The duties of citizenship are quite as high and important as any which can 
engage your attention, and the educated men of our country should be the last 
to overlook and neglect them. They, oi all men, should by example and prac- 
tice enforce upon every community in which they reside the necessity for a wise, 
intelligent and patriotic performance of the civil obligations resting upon the 
citizens of a fi'ee country. Your profession, ladies and gentlemen, is one of 
responsibility. I know of no class of persons upon whom is imposed graver 
duties, or who have wider opportunities for promoting good citizenship and en- 
couraging high aims and purposes, both in individual and National life, than 
those who have charge cf the educational institutions of the country. The 
public teacher is a public servant. He is not in private employment. He is an 
essential part of the conservative force which upholds the National fabric. He 
instructs the fviture citizen and statesman, and is, or ought to be, a mighty 
power in the life of the Nation. His influence heretofore has uniformly been on 
the side ot right, and he should never be insensible to the fact that he is 
engaged in a most noble calling. The youth are his to train and guide, and 
thu,; it may be wisely done, so far as he is concerned, he has my best 
wis' c and prayers. I shall be glad to meet and greet each of you personally."^ 
Applause.) 

YOUNG HEN IN POLITICS. 

A sub-committee of the Executive Committee of the Republican National 
League arrived in Canton, Friday afternoon, August 28th, over the Pittsburg, 
Fort ''Vayne and Chicago Railroad, to call on Major McKinley. This sub- 
committee was appointed by the National League Convention, which had been 
held at Milwaukee during the week, to come to Canton for the express purpose 

100 



of tendering to Major McKinley personal assurances of support from the 
League, and to confer with him in regard to some of the work >f the campaign. 
The party left Milwaukee, Thursday evening, at 4 o'clock . The members of the 
sub-committee and the irresidences are as follows: Messrs. George Stone, 
California; Bemak G. Dawes, Nebraska; John Goodnow, Minnesota; O. 8. 
Glick, Wisconsin; T. L. Edinborough, Michigan; Luke F. W.alker, Wiscon- 
sin; T. T. Meyer, New Jersey; W. F. Poucher, New Jersey; George W. 
RucH, Pennsylvania; Frank J. Higgins, New Jersey ; M. J. Dowling, Minne- 
sota; Charles W. Howell, New Jersey; George W. McEwan, New Jersey; 
Thomas F. Barrett, West Virginia; Burgess L. McElroy and Charles 
Leach, of Ohio. They were cordially received by Major McKinley in the 
parlors of his home and remained the greater part of the afternoon in conver- 
sation with him. The spokesman of the League was Mr. John Goobnow of 
Minnesota whose address on the occasion was as follows : 

"Major McKinley: We come to you as the Executive Committee of the 
National League of Republican Clubs instructed by the Milwaukee Convention 
to assure you that the League Clubs in every State in the Union are loyal to you 
and active in their support of the principles for which you stand. To the end of 
the campaign you will find every League man at his post doing all in his power 
for the success of the Republican Party. I do not need to give you the details 
of our organization. We are proud of the fact that you have been one of us 
and in sympathy with our methods ever since the organization of the League 
in 1887. You know, sir, that the National League is composed of clubs from 
every State. Its active membership at this time is over 2,000,000 voters. It 
has ever been only for the success of the party and its principles, and has never 
attempted to interfere with nominations or appointments. In that sense, we 
are not 'practical politicians.' The League is based on the fact that it is the 
duty of every citizen to study public questions and having so studied them it 
is his privilege to assume in the most effective way at his command the prac- 
tical success of the policies and principles he deems best for the good of the 
whole country. Our motto is 'Educate and Organize.' It has been the method 
of the clubs to study and discuss public questions between campaigns, to present 
Republican documents to young men about to cast their first votes, and to new 
voters at the time when they have leisure to study and dispassionately discrim- 
inate. Faith built up in this manner and founded on truth can not be disturb- 
ed by the excitements and impulses of a campaign. Republicans so made are 
Republicans from conviction and are not easily led astray. They are stalwart 
fighting Republicans, for they fight for the principles which they earnestly 
believe are essential to the welfare of the whole people. For the success of 
these principles they have organized themselves into campaign clubs, pledged 
BOW to work for the success of the party and its whole ticket. From these clubs 
we bring you greeting. You wear upon your coat, sir, the button of the private 
volunteer soldier, who fought not for money or for glory, but for the life and 
integrity of the Union. We wear the League button— the button of the privates 
of the Republican army who are fighting to-day not for office, nor for fame, but 
for principle and the honor of the Nation. You will remember, sir, how the 
army looked to General Grant, their leader, in whom they had implicit confi- 
dence. We, your troops, look to you as our leader, always in the front of the 
fight, never dismayed by reverses, bold, aggressive, and sure to lead us to 
victory. From the farms of the Northwest to the plantations of Louisiana ; 
from the groves of California to the mines and factories of West Virginia and 

101 



New Jersey, we bring to you tlie woixi that the ranks of the workers are unwaver- 
ing and that the plain ijeople believe your success is their success. The farms^ 
factories and workshops are forMcKiNLEY and Hobart, for Protection and Reci- 
procity, for Sound Money and the Nation's honor." (Applause.) 

riajor flcKinley's Response. 

"Mr. GooDNCW AND Gentlemen- of the Republican National League: It 
gives me great pleasure to greet at my home this large Committee represent- 
the Republican Clubs of the United States. I know something of your 
work and its gi*eat worth — I know how in former campaigns the splendid services 
of the young Republicans of the country have contributed to bring to us mo.«fc 
signal triumphs. I am glad to hear from your spokesman, fresh from your 
National Convention, that the Republican Party and cause this year are to 
have your united, aggressive and unfaltering support ; and I am sure that 
support, connected with the support which will come from all classes of our 
fellow citizens everywhere, will give to the National ticket and to our party a 
triumph, the like of which we have not had for many years. (Applause. ) We 
can not overestimate the value of young men in politics, and I would not 
have believed it, if Mr. Goodnow had not told me, that they were not practical 
politicians. (Laughter.) My experience with them has been that they are pol- 
iticians of the most practical sort known in American politics. But, gentlemen, 
you never had a worthier cause to strive for than you have this year. The finan- 
cial honor of the country and the prosperity of all its people are enough to 
inspire every American heart to the best possible effort. (Applause.) I have 
seen somewhere an inquiry, 'Can not the United States establish a finan- 
cial system of its own? Is it too weak and dependent to do that?' I answer: 
The United States now has a financial policy which in the main it has been 
pursuing since the beginning of the Government and which it does not mean 
to change until it can find a better one. Those who make the inquiry are usu- 
ally against our American jiolicy of finance and they are insisting that we shall 
adopt the financial policy of China and Mexico. I hope it will not be thought 
an evidence of lack of National spirit or National independence that we decline 
to adopt their proposition." (Great applause.) 

A CALL FROM THE UNITED BRETHREN CONFERENCE. 

On Friday afternoon, August 28th, at four o'clock, four hundred members 
and friends of the East Ohio Conference of the United Brethren Church called at 
the home of Major McKinley, to offer formal congratulations and tender 
assurances of personal regard and support. The visitors arranged them- 
selves on the lawn and waited for the appearance of Major McKinley, who 
was accompanied by a Committee from the Conference, and the Chautauqua 
salute was given the Major when he stepped on the porch. Bishop Millls was 
spokesman for the callers and performed his duty in a very happy and eloquent, 
manner, as follows: 

"Major McKinley: It is our pleasant fortune to be in annual session in 
your beautiful city. We have called at your home to pay our respects to and 
express our good wishes for its distinguished citizen. We love our country 
and would have no East, no West, no North, no South, but a land in \vhich all 
classes dwell together as mutual helpers — co-heirs of a common inheritance, 
co-workers in securing a common destiny, bound together by a patriotism 
stronger than death and the joy of all life. We believe in civic righteousness 

102 



' — justice to the humblest, as well as the highest citizen in the land; obedience 
to law from all alike, and good men to sit in authority over us, for when the 
wicked rule the land mourns, but when the righteous reign the land rejoices. 
We have faith in the future of our country. Under a Providence wiser and 
greater than man our Nation will be delivered from its present evils and 
sorrows and each one will sic down in his own peaceful, prosperous home to 
enjoy the fruits of his labor and thus be an illustration of the fact that 'happy 
is the nation whose God is the Lord.' Some of these men enlisted with you 
in the service of our country in the time of its peril. They wish to look upon 
the face of their illustrious comrade. "We all have heard of your blameless life, 
your noble patriotism, your distinguished public services and your exalted 
National ideas, therefore we are delighted to bring you the greetings of our 
people and to wish you success." (Applause. ) 

flajor JVlcKinley's Response. 

"Bishop Mills, Ladies and Gentlemen, Members op the Eastern Ohio 
Conference OP THE United Brethren Church : It gives me great pleasure to 
respond to this call of greeting and congratulation. I duly appreciate the 
message of good will which you so kindly bring from the religious body that 
you represent. It is a good omen always when religious teachers are alive to 
questions respecting the public welfare. Nothing is more worthy of your study 
and consideration than those issues which tend to make the country gi-eat, 
prosperous and righteous. Civic virtue is a good text for the preacher always, 
but a better thing for every citizen to zealously guard in his daily life. 
(Applause.) Good citizensliip lies at the foundation of our true greatness as a 
free government and those who promote it are indeed Christian teachers and 
public benefactors. The better the citizen the better a free government and 
the better its laws. It is a gratifying fact as you state that in our form of gov- 
ernment character countsfor so much and the lack of it amounts to almost a 
disqualification for public trust. Whatever men's individual opinions on moral 
questions are, or whatever may be their party affiliations, all prefer that 
public officials shall be of good character and high moral worth. They may be 
heedless of virtue, and careless in their own lives, but they have always insisted 
that those who are to execute the public law shall be men of unquestioned 
integrity. Public opinion demands this and happily all political parties respect 
it. I wish +"or every religious body whose object is to elevate mankind the 
fullest measure of success. No nobler cause could engage your faculties, I 
trust your annual Conference here will be productive of good, as I V lieve it 
will be, and that your stay here will bring pleasure to you, as I am s-re it hag 
brought pleasure to our people and city, I will be glad to meet each of you 
who have honored me to-day ; and I thank you heartily for the courtesy and 
compliment of your call." (Applause.) 

COMMERCIAL MEN FROfl CHICAGO. 

The Commercial Men's McKinley Club No. 1 of Chicago came to Canton 
two hundred strong on Saturday morning, August 29th, to call oil Majtjr 
McKinley, The party arrived at 7 :45 over the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and 
Chicago Eailroad and the cars in which they came had str(»amers on the sides 
bearing the words : "Commercial McKinley Club No. 7 , from Chicago to Canton." 
In addition to this one of the sleeperB bore a streamer noting that its occupants 

103 



were of "The John B. Farwell Company." Numerous banners were carried 
by the commercial men, conspicuous among them being those on which wei'e 
pictures of McKinley and Hobart, "An Honest Dollar," clasped hands of 
workingmen and the woi-ds, "Protection to Labor and Capital, Honest Money 
in 1896 to Revive Trade, Start Industries, Increase Wages, and Eestore National 
Credit." The visitors were under command of Chief Marshal George Green, 
who had as Assistants, Charles Neeley, W. H. Haskell, Joseph Pomeroy and 
Frank F. Lewis. The party contained all the members of the National 
Executive Committee of tlie Commercial men of the United States as follows: 
G. J. Corey, Chairman ; G. J. Peed, H. H. Osgood, O. D. Frary, H, B. Parker. 
C. H. McDonald; N. S. Florsheim, Secretary; and C. H. Perry, Acting 
Secretary. The officers of the Commercial McKinley Club No. 1 were 
also in line. They are: G. J. Corey, President; James H. Miller, First 
Vice Pi'esident; Samuel Pike, Second Vice President; J. V. Patterson, 
Third Vice President; N. S. Florsheim, Secretary; F. H. Haigh, Treas- 
urer; Executive Committee: Samuel Pike, Chairman; H. H, Osgood, 
H. L. Pinney, "W. H. Haskell, M. Swatek, Charles H. McDonald, D. 
P. Deardorf, G. L. La very, Charles H. Holbridge, C. E. Ferguson, Mark 
Day, G. H. Green, H. L. Hart, Louis A. Kohn, AVilliam S. Tucker, G. J. Reed, 
M. A. Garrett, C. H. Neeley, T. M. Galliger and O. D. Frary. The party was 
met at the depot by the Canton Troop, Canton Reception Committee, and Mr. 
John C. Dueber and Superintendent Detmering, and several hundred 
employes of the famous Deuber Watch Works, while the Grand Ai'my Band, as 
usual, furnished excellent music. Mr. John C. Dueber had received an invita- 
tion from the commercial men to join in the demonstration and through Super- 
intendent Detmering of his Company the invitation was extended to all the 
employes who believed in honest money to assemble at the works to form an 
escort for the visitors. The Dueber men turned out several hundred strong and 
armed with McKinley and Hobart umbrellas the Cantonians caused hearty 
applause along the line of march. They met at the Dueber works early 
in the morning in answer to the booming of the cannon on the heights. Mr. 
John C. Dueber was not to be outdone by his employes, for, accompanied by 
G. C. Corey, Chairman of the National Executive Committee of the Com- 
mercial Men of the United States, F. A. Higbee, who arranged the parade, and 
George B. Frease, he drove to the train to give greeting in person to the com- 
mercial men. The visitors took breakfast at the Hurford House, and at 9:30 
the march was resumed by the commercial men and the local escort, and the 
yard of the McKinley residence and the streets near-by were soon filled with a 
great crowd. The Chicago men were wide-awake and very enthusiastic. 
President George J. Corey, Hon. Charles P. Hitch, Cliairman of the Illinois 
State Central Committee, Mr. Edwin F. Brown, of Evanston, Illinois, casliier 
of the Republican National headquarters, and Mr. John C. Dueber, headed the 
delegation, and were shown into the house. Tliey soon returned with 
Major McKinley when there was a great demonstration by the immense 
crowd. Cheer after cheer was given, hats were thrown into the air, umbrellas 
and canes were flourished aloft, and the Chicago men could be stopped from 
their enthusiastic applause only after they were tired out with tlie effort. 
President Corey was spokesman for the commercial men and introduced the 
party in a most eloquent and spirited manner. He said : 

' 'Major McKinley : Allow me in behalf of the Commercial Travelers of the 
United States to extend to you greetings. The Commercial McKinley Club 
No. 1 was organized June 15, 1892, the day that you assumed the Chairman- 

104 



•ship of the National UepublicaD 'Convention at Minneapolis. The organizers 
of this Club early beheld in you above all others the embodiment and greatest 
exponent of the principles which they cherished and firmly believed essential 
to the welfare and prosperity of our country ; namely, protection to our home 
industries, reciprocity, a sound treasury, and honest money. In you they also 
beheld a man they know to be a true friend to the toiling millions of our coun- 
try — a true American whose first and best thought and life work, has been 
given to help lift the burden from the shoulders of his toiling countrymen. 
Time has shown the wisdom of their choice. Your magic name has added thou- 
sands upon thousands of earnest workers to our membership rolls. The inter- 
vening years have been trying and critical times for all, but you have never for 
a moment lost the faith that was in you. When overwhelming defeat met and 
crushed your cherished hopes, aspirations and life work on the very eve of its 
grand consummation, you maintained a serene confidence in the ultimate tri- 
umph and vindication of these great principles. Reverses only stimulated 
you to greater effort. Your gallant championship of the cause gave confi- 
dence to the disheartened. You have already won a lasting place, not 
only in the history of our Republic, but in the hearts of millions of your fellow 
-countrymen, who have spontaneously risen and demanded that you shall be 
their standard bearer in the great campaign of 1896. I feel safe in saying that 
there is no class of citizens in our country who more thoroughly understan''. 
and comprehend the true issues of this campaign than the commercial travel- 
ing men. They are selected in all the various lines of business they repre- 
sent for their intelligence, keen judgment of men and conditions that exist 
and effect the business and prosperity of the section of country allotted to 
them. They are satisfied with the money of our country, knowing that it is 
as good as any in the world. In this great army of commercial ambassadors, 
every one is thinking for himself. They know without private or public 
instruction that the free coinage of silver is not the true issue of this campaign, 
but that it is protection of home industries, reciprocity, and a sound treasury. 
These three conditions will bring back to us prosperous times, but the coinage 
■of fifty cent dollars will bring only distrust, panic and further suffering. They 
know that this populistic-anarchistic-free-coinage combination, masquerading 
under the name of Democracy, did not dare to come before the country on the 
true issue of this campaign because recent elections have convinced them 
that they would be buried by the intelligent voters deeper than were the 
mythical cyclops with Mount ^Etna hurled over them. And so they improvised 
this false issue, free coinage of silver, as the panacea for the evils they have 
brought _.pon us, knowing that the average citizen had given the subject but 
little if any thought and they could therefore fool him again with their soph- 
istries and get his vote in this campaign as they did in 1892, on the plausible 
theory of the benefits of free trade to the workingman creating an enlarged 
foreign market for our manufactured products in competition with the low 
paid labor of Europe, India, China and Japan. The commercial traveling men 
of the United States have enlisted nearly to a man to save this country from 
the fearful perils of a bankrupt treasury, fiat and depreciated money, repudia- 
tion and the other long chain of evils that follow. The battle ground has been 
transferred in this campaign to our "Western States, and I assure you that no 
more thorough, honest work could be done in this section than the commer- 
cial traveling men are now doing. They are at work with an enthusiasm that 
hardly knows bounds, traveling early and late, with Republican literature in 
.every pocket, not forgetting that their next duty to the selling of their ware* 

105 



and merchandise is to proselyte for the cause of, I am almost persu^ided to sny r 
' The perpetuation of our free institutions.' They recognize that on your 
election hangs the welfare and prosperity of our whole country for years to- 
ome. Graver issues have not been presented since 1861, but we come from 
the center of the battle field to bring you words of encouragement and good 
eh ZT, and meet you in a spirit of cheerfulness, firmly believing in the glorious 
triumph of our cause on the third day of November next, a victory so over- 
whelming that their scattered forces will not for a generation to come be reor- 
ganized on the present wild, impracticable and dangerous theories of go vera ■- 
ment." (Prolonged applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Pi'esiden Corey, Gentlemen op the CoMMnRCiAL Travelers Association,. 
AND My Fello Citizens: I bid you welcome, thrice welcome, to my home. 
I feel honored, greatly honored, by the call of this assemblage of commercial 
men representing sucli great interests and coming from every section of our 
common country. (Applause.) Although you are accustomed to calling on 
people, for that I believe is jhiefiy your business, let me assure you that you 
never mad a call anywhere more agreeable to your host than this call is to me. 
(Great applause ana cries of 'Good, 'Good,' and 'Hurrah for McKinley.') It 
be would pleasant to me personally to meet you on any occasion, but it is 
peculiarly gratifying to meet you now, coming as a body, to test'fy your united 
and confident devotion to the principles enunciated by the Republican National 
Convention of 1896. (Cheers.) I recognize your influence as one of the 
most potent factors in political contests, and am glad to knovv' that this year, iiv 
a greater degree than ever before, the commercial men of the country are united 
in their support of the cause of the Republican Party. (Tremendous cheering. ) 
You have not always been in such close agreement with each other politically as 
now, but then you have had experience, and for four years, or nearly so, you 
have been attending the school in which all the rest of us have also been pupils. 
(Great laughter.) It has been a public school (renewed laughter) the tuition 
has been free (continued laughter, and cries of 'Pretty costly though,') but 
the ultimate cost has been very gi-eat. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') 
No body of American citizens of equal numbers could properly have a deeper 
interest in the success of Republican principles than you ; and none, I am sui-e, 
can do so much to secure their certain triumph as you. (Great cheering and; 
cries of 'We will do that all right, Major.') You are not only couriers of com- 
merce, but creators of confidence ; not only advocates of progress but promoters^ 
cf pj-osperity. Everywhere you inspire either confidence or distrust, for you 
tell the truth about the condition of the country. You not only sell goods, or- 
used to (great laughter and cheering) but you disseminate information among- 
your customers. There is no more certain barometer of the business of the 
United States than the sentiments of the men of which this body assembled 
here this morning is representative. You encourage the despondent and 
quicken the lagging into fresh activity. You give new hope and stimulate new 
effort in that great body of business men upon whom so largely depends the 
revival of business in all parts of our country. (Applause.) What we want, 
above all else, my fellow citizens, is the restoration of business confidence. 
(Criesof 'Good,' 'Good.') And we can not get, it is impossible to get this, 
confidence, by threatening to revolutionize all values and repudiate obligations; 
both public and private. (Enthusiastic cheering.) You know the facts of bus- 
iness and can dispel the theories of the dreamer and the misstatements of theu 

106 



demagogue, and one thing I like about the commercial travelers is that each 
one of them is for the United States of America (great applause and cries of 
'And for MoKiNLEY, too,') and always stands up for America, (Cheers.) We 
are all members of the great American family and those policies which are 
good for one of us are good for all of us. (Cries of 'That's right.') Those 
policies that are good for the Eastern and the Central States are just as good 
for the West, the great Northwest, and the South and the Southwest. (Applause.) 
We have always practiced the golden rule. The best policy is 'to live and let 
live,' and to buy and sell in the way that will best promote the highest good of 
all. (Applause.) It never pays to buy cheap goods from a rival whose object 
in selling to you at a low price is to establish a business that will in time destroy 
your own. (Great applause and cries of 'That's right.') We want no cheap 
goods in this country at tlie expense of free and honest American labor. (Tre- 
mendous cheering" and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') We want no cheap 
goods whose production would require us to introduce in the United States 
industrial and social degradation. (Cries of 'You are right we don't.') The 
commercial travelers are practical business men and comprehend business 
results. They understand business ; they know what wall best promote it ; and 
they realize that it is not what it ought to be to-day in the United States. 
(Great applause and cries of 'That's right.' I read an interview yesterday 
with a commercial traveler who said he had been in seven States and in 
reply to his question, 'Do you want anything in my line?' came the 
stereotyped answer, 'We don't need anything now.' (Cries of 'We have 
been there' and great laughter. ) Well, gentlemen, w^e need all you have got 
in this line of work for the country this year. (Great cheering and cries of 
'You will get it.') Your spokesman has eloquently enumerated several of 
the great essentials to our welfare and prosperity. Protection, as he well 
said, is the true National policy, the foundation stone on which must be 
reared the great structure of American ascendency and progress, the system 
that is preservative of all business, that steadily advanced this country to the 
proudest rank in manufacturing, mining, trading, and farming — the rankw!iich 
it should always occupy, greater than any other nation of the world. (Great 
applause.) You will agree, I am sure, in the proud claim of Henry Clay — for it 
is just as true to-day as ever before: 'The cause of Protection,' said he, 'is the 
cause of the country and it must and will prevail. It is founded in the interests 
and affections of the people.' Reciprocity, too, the gift of Blaine (applause) and 
Harrison (renewed applause) to the Nation, which was deferred by Garfield's 
(cheers) untimely death, but was at length proclaimed by that great President, 
statesman and patriot, Benjamin Harrison. (Tremendous cheering and cries 
of 'Hurrah for MoKinley.') Reciprocity, I say, the twin of Protection, and the 
true handmaiden of Prosperity, already has a strong hold on the affections of 
our people. Limited as her opportunities have been, she has already shown 
that she can be a great factor in the trade of our country. What we want, 
gentlemen, is a reciprocity that is fair, liberal and just to ourselves as w^ell as to 
other countries. We will have no policy by which we do not get as much as we 
give (cries of 'Good,' 'Good,') and wiU inaugurate none that ever takes 
from our American workingmen a single day's work that they can possibly 
get. (Great applause and cries of 'MoKinley's all right.') We will simply 
revive the policy that put American flour in Havana free and gave Cuban 
sugar free to the people of the United States (great cheering) on terms alike, 
just, fair, honorable and advantageous to both countries. (Renewed cheering.) 
The policy of Harrison and Blaine (applause) means our supremacy in trade — 

107 



not our injury. It proposes new and larger markets for our surplus manufac- 
tured and agricultural products — not injurious competition, nor lessened trade. 
(Applause.) It must mean better wages and firmer prices for what we do, or 
can produce, not less work or poorer rewards to any of om* citizens. (Cheers.; 
It found our foreign products practically excluded from countries that were 
receiving important and profitable concessions from the United States and 
exacted equal advantages from them. It said, 'Open your gates to us; ours 
are already open to you.' It increased our foreign trade only in the degree that 
it advanced our domestic trade. Protection guards the products of our labor at 
home ; reciprocity opens a market for the products of our labor abroad. Cries 
of 'Good,' 'Good,' 'That's right.') We gain by both and we will maintain both so 
long as the good of the country demands it. (Great applause. ) A Sound Treasury, 
too, for which you speak, is demanded alike by every consideration of good 
government and good business. The Government naust provide revenue for 
all expenses or its credit will be in constant jeopardy. Four of the great and 
invaluable ends which Alexander Hamilton said in 1790 were 'to be secured 
by a proper and adequate provision for the support of the public credit' are aa 
important to-day as they were then. Let me enumerate them: 'To promote 
the increasing respectability of the American name (cheers); to answer 
the calls of justice (cheers) ; to furnish new resources both to agriculture and 
commerce (cheers) ; and to establish public order on the basis of an upright and 
liberal policy.' (Great applause . ) The means Hamilton recommended for the 
accomplishment of these glorious objects are those that should be restored in 
the administration of our Government to-day. He favored the levying of suffi- 
cient duties upon foreign products to provide abundant revenues for the sup- 
port of the Government (cries of 'Good,' 'Good,') to pay ita National debt 
and establish, foster, and encourage manufactures, commerce and agricul- 
ture. (Applause.) He favored the policy of fully protecting the American 
people in their occupations and enterprises, thereby creating that splendid 
home market which is (or has been) the best and greatest in the world. 
(Great cheering.) He favored a debt-paying, not a debt-increasing policy. 
(Applause.) A confidence-inspiring, not a confidence-destroying system. 
(Great applause and cries of ' That's good.') Let us emulate his great exam- 
ple and return to the wise course he bade us follow. The safest prop to a 
sound treasury is a protective tariff (cries of 'You're right') and I believe 
that the American people intend to restore it. (Cries of 'They will.') It is 
the true patriotic policy and can not be safely surrendered, compromised, or 
abandoned. (Great applause.) Honest Money, for which you declare, must 
necessarily always be the best money. (Cheers.) This is the character of the 
money we have in circulation to-day— every dollar of it is worth one 
hundred cents (tremendous applause) in every country of the world— and we 
propose to keep it so. (Enthusiastic cheering and cries of 'When you're 
elected there'll be no doubt about that.') If there is one kind of money that 
is good in every civilized country of the world and another kind that passes 
current in only some parts of the world, the people of the United States will 
never be content with anything short of the best— the kind of money that is 
good everywhere. (Great applause.) We have been doing business on that basis 
ever since January 1, 1879, and we will continue that policy so long as we have 
a just regard for our honest obligations and high standing as a nation. Free 
silver at a ratio of sixteen to one, or about half its true bullion value, is not 
honest money. (Cries of 'No, you bet it isn't.') Good money never made times 
hard (cries of 'No,' 'No,') and poor money never made times good. (Tre- 

108 



mendous applause and waving of hats.) My fellow citizens, our contest this 
year is for the country's honor and prosperity. The need of the hour ia work 
for willing hands, work and wages for the unemployed, (Cries of 'That's right. 
Major,') and a chance to earn the good dollars which are now idle and are 
only waiting in their hiding places for a restoration of confidence. (Great 
cheering.) Our contest is for the good faith of the Nation and the welfare of 
the people and we can proclaim with confidence the same supreme faith in the 
people which upheld Lincoln in every trial of the war. As he said, ' Intelli- 
gence and patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance in Him who has never 
yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way 
all our present diflBculties.' (Cries of 'That's right.') In this faith we sub- 
mit our contention to the great tribunal of the people. I thank you, my fellow 
citizens, for the compliment and courtesy of this call. I thank you for your 
message of good will and assurance of support given to me by your spokesman. 
I shall never forget this visit of the commercial travelers of the United States ; 
(Cries of 'Nor will we') and it will give me the greatest pleasure to meet and 
greet each one of you personally." (7remendous cheering and loud cries of 
"Hurrah for McKinley, our next Presi' .ent.") 

A COMPLIMENT TO MOTHER McKINLEY. 

The Commercial McKinley Club of Chicago headed by the Grand Army 
Band left the Hurford House at seven o'clock, Saturday evening, and proceeded 
in a body to the home of Mrs. "William McKinley, Sr., at No. 131 West Tusca- 
rawas Street. The Band tendered Mother McKiNLEY^a delightful serenade and 
when Mrs. McKinley and Miss Helen McKinley came out upon the porch they 
were given a rousing cheer by the visitors. The famous quartette of the 
Chicago Club then rendered several selections, after which each one was afford- 
ed the pleasure of shaking hands and conversing with the mother of the 
Eepublican nominee. The parade reformed and went back to the Hurford, from 
the balcony of which the Band gave a short concert program. The Commercial 
Men then went to Major McKinley' s and tendered him a serenade, and after 
bidding him good bye marched to the Fort "Wayne depot and left at nine o'clock 
for home. Before going they gave three cheers and a tiger for McKinley in 
which the Cantonians at the station joined most heartily. 

THE GERMAN AMERICANS OF CLEVELAND. 

One thousand German-Americans arrived over the Cleveland, Canton and 
Southern Railroad, Saturday afternoon, August 29th, and called on Major 
McKinley at 4.15 o'clock. They came in a special train and were headed by 
the First Regiment Band of the Forest City. The party was escorted to the 
McKinley residence by detachments of the Canton Troop and the Reception 
Committee. The McKinley Drum Corps also did commendable service. After 
a selection had been played by the band at the residence of Major McKinley, 
a German hymn was sung by a number of the visitors. The yard and streets 
adjacent were filled with thousands of shouting Republicans. Members of 
the visiting delegation carried small American flags which they waved wildly 
as they cheered most heartily when the Cleveland Committee appeared with 
Major McKinley. Col. Louis Smithnight addressed Major McKinley, on behalf 
of the expectant thousands, in a few stirring sentences. He said McKinley was 
one of the best friends the Germans ever had, a sentiment that was most en- 

109 



thusiasticaUy applauded. He closed by introducing the first spokesman of the 
party, Captain E. H. Bohm, a veteran who lost an eye in the service. He traced 
the part the German race had taken in many important historical events and 
asserted that the Germans are as loyal to home and country as they ever were. 
He declared that the Germans are a people of deep convictions, who are study- 
ing the political questions now before the people of the United States. This 
study he assured Major McKixley would be entirely favorable to the Republi- 
can cause, for German-Americans everywhere are for Protection, Reciprocity, 
and Sound Money, and in line for the standard bearer of the Republican Party. 
(Applause.) Capt. Bohm was followed by Hon. Charles Schxeider, who spoke 
with much force, as follows : " Major McKixley : We who have come here to- 
day are naturalized and native-born German-American citizens. All of us who 
are here have not in the past affiliated with the Republican Party, but every man 
who is here to-day has come for the express purpose of pledging you his earnest 
and hearty support. (Tremendous cheering.) We recognize in yoi;, sir, tlie man 
of the people ; the noble champion of American labor, (cries of * good,' 'good,' 
*that's right,') the leader of the times, the worthy and successful standard bearer 
of the party which gave to the United States the immortal Abraham Lincoln. 
(Tremendous applause.) We recognize in you, sir, the man not for one class 
but for all ; tlie man who believes that true and lasting prosperity can only be 
ours whenever a man who wants to work can get work at remunerative wages. 
We recognize in you, the man not for one section of our country, but for the 
whole of our common country. (Great applause.) The man who fought to 
save his country's flag when that flag was in danger, and who loves it now be- 
cause wherever it waves its inspiring folds it symbolizes a united people— the 
freest and greatest Nation on the face of the earth. (Great applause.) Your 
long and wonderful career has revealed your character to us. Your heroic and 
unceasing efforts in behalf of American labor, American industries, American 
farmers, and general American prosperity have endeared you not only to the 
millions who toil, but to every fair minded and liberty loving citizen in the 
land. (Great cheering.) Among them all I beg to assure you that there are 
none more true, none more earnest, none more sincere in their admiration for 
you, than the German-American citizens of tliis, our glorious country. (En- 
thusiastic applause and cries of ' Hurrah for McKixley.') AVe have come to tell 
you Major McKinley that we have not forgotten the period of continued and 
ever-increasing prosperity from 1880 to 1892, (cries of 'good,' 'good,') the period 
when the protective principle which has become so indelibly associated with 
your name attained its highest and most potent expression in the acme of our 
country's prosperity. (Great applause.) We have come to tell you further, 
sir, that no false issue at this time can blot from our memory the vivid pictures 
of hard times, of suffering and distress which have been constantly with us since 
that fatal day in November, 1892, when the majority of the people misguidedly 
clamored for a change. (Great cheering.) Ours is a government of the people 
and what the people want they will have. (Cries of ' And the people will have 
McKixley.') This is usually the rule, but the exception this time, however, 
has been that during the past three years and a half tlicy have had to take what 
they did not want ; they made a mistake. We all realize that the resurrection 
of our former good times depends upon restoring and reviving Protection and 
Reciprocity. (Applause and cries of ' That's what we vrant.') It is the protec- 
tive system chiefly that will again open and people our mills and factories and 
the mints will be ready to open themselves to meet all the necessary require- 
ments. (Great applause.) With Protection and Reciprocity again in force the 

110 



mills of this country will boom and everything will move forward in a proper 
way, and our vast home market, though now 'lost to sight, still to memory dear,' 
will again render profitable the noble calling of the farmer, (Cheers.) One of 
the cardinal attributes of the German character is sincerity and honesty of pur- 
pose. He seeks earnestly to discover truth from falsehood ; he moves somewhat 
slowly until he discerns the right ; his convictions are never predicated upon 
impulses. Once sure that he is right, the clamor of false logic can not make 
him waver. (Great applause.) Hence we who are here to-day can say to you, 
sir, that the same motive which impels us to pledge you our support will govern 
the great majority of the German-American citizens all over the United States 
to stand by you and to help bury forever the false issue designedly thrust for- 
ward in this campaign to hide the real one. (Tremendous cheering.) The 
German- Americans have no faith in the fallacy of cheap money. They understand 
that the Government's fiat stamped upon fifty-three cents worth of silver coined 
at a ratio of 16 to 1 can not raise the value of that silver to 100 cents against the 
-combined forces of the civilized nations of the world. (Applause and cries of 
' good,' 'good.') The German-American citizens will, thei'efore, during this mo- 
mentous struggle stand by you as a stone wall for honest money, American in- 
terests and good government. (Gi-eat cheering and cries of ' Hurrah for Mc- 
KixLEY.') Major McKinley, I will not detain you and those assembled here 
but a moment longer — one word more and I am done. In the gi'eat campaign 
now in progress the German-Americans will be as ever ready to serve their 
country's best interests. In this most important campaign they will stand by 
you and by the party of prosperity and sound money; and when the final day 
comes in November they will unerringly speak for the continued maintenance 
of sound and honest money — aye, and for the sacred perpetuation of their 
country's hitherto unsullied honor." (Great applause.) 

flajor ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: It is with peculiar pleasure and satisfaction that I 
welcome this representative body of German-American citizens of the city 
of Cleveland and of Northern Ohio to the city of Canton and my own 
home. I appreciate heartily your call, which, as a compliment to myself, I 
prize highly, but more than all, and above all, I value it as a significant 
expression of your interest and zeal in the gi-eat campaign upon which we have 
entered. (Applause.) The citizens of the United States have learned not only 
to respect but to depend upon the Germans as a great and potent influence in 
our civilization — safe and steady in every emergency and patriotic in every 
crisis. (Great applause.) Loving your Mother Country as you do, most 
affectionately, does not mean that you love your Adopted Country less, but that 
you have hearts big enough to love both. (Applause and cries of 'good,' 
'good.') Transplanted in the free soil of America, German characteristics 
have strengthened our institutions and exercised both a salutary and wise 
influence in our progi-ess as a Nation. Love of Fatherland, that deep and noble 
sentiment which has ever distinguished you, means to our German citizens 
always love of America and its free institutions and absolute and unqualified 
devotion to every true American interest. (Great applause.) Eespect for law 
and order and faithful obedience to the constituted authorities have been dis- 
tinguishing traits of the German on both sides of the Atlantic, while hatred of 
wrong and oppression has called him to arms as quickly from his farm on our 
• Western prairies as from his ancestral vineyard on the Ehine. (Great cheer- 
ing.) Historians have recorded in all its greatness the strength and service of 

111 



that gallant German-American army which rallied to the standard of liberty 
and union at the call of Lincoln and enrolled in its splendid history the im- 
perishable names of the thousands who so nobly suffered and died for their 
imperiled country. (Great cheering.) But no such enumeration, honorable as 
it is, can do full justice to the services of those brave men, nor can it estimate 
at its true value their firm support of the Union in its moral effect upon all our 
people. (Applause.) Proudly can those German-American soldiers point to 
their deeds of valor and suffering in that great war. Confidently can they claim 
that they brought no shame upon the German name, but that they bore them- 
selves upon a hundred hard fought fields in America as bravely as ever did their 
fathers, the soldiers of Frkdebick or Blucher, of the old wars, or their brothers, 
the soldiers of William and Von Moltke, in the greatest European war of recent 
years. (Great cheering.) Our Government highly appreciated their splendid 
services. When the news of the fall of Richmond reached Washington, the people 
assembled in large numbers at the residence of Mr. Seward, then the Secretary 
of State. Responding to their call for a speech the great premier said 
among other things: ' I am now about wi'iting my foreign dispatches. What 
shall I tell the King of Prussia?' Pausing but an instant he quickly answered 
his own question with this glowing tribute to our German fellow citizens: ' I 
will tell him that the Germans have been as faithful to the standard of the 
Union, as his excellent minister, Baron Gerolt, has been constant in his friend- 
ship to the United States.' (Tremendous applause. ) My fellow citizens, better 
or more faithful soldiers never mustered under any flag, fighting for any cause, 
than those willing and sturdy German-American volunteers. (Great cheering 
and cries of ' Hurrah for McKinley.') The troops who fought under Willich, 
Weitzel, Siqel, Kautz, Osterhaus, Schurz, Hartranft, and Heintzelman, 
were the equals of their trained kinsmen of the imperial armies of Germany. 
(Renewed cheering.) You will remember that old General Willich used to 
boast laughingly: "Give me two brigades of my corn-fed Western Germans and 
I will land them on the North Coast and take the Empire!" (Tremendous 
applause and laughter.) General Sherman, too, declared after visiting Europe, 
where he had discussed the operations of the Franco-Prussian war, that he had 
seen no troops that excelled our own either of the Eastern or Western armies , 
and Abraham Lincoln proclaimed over and over again that the Germans were 
'true, patriotic and faithful to the flag of our country.' (Great cheering.) 
But, my fellow-citizens, it is of the German- American in peace that I would now 
speak — conservative, industrious, steady, sensible, honest, fond of home and 
family, a good citizen — and who could be fond of home and family and not 
be a good citizen? — (renewed cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley') 
—not deluded by false theories of finance, nor by catch phrases of the campaign. 
As in the crisis of the Civil War he was faithful to the country and sustained the 
flag, so in every crisis since he has stood for the financial honor and integrity 
of the Government of the United States, always standing opposed to inflation 
and repudiation, no matter what the form or nature of the guise in which these 
specious policies were presented. (Applause.) More than once in the close 
States during the struggle for the resumption of specie payments, the German- 
American vote turned the scale in favor of honest finance and the Nation's 
plighted faith. The German-Americans do not like either cheap men or cheap 
money. (Applause and cries of 'You are right, they don't.') They typify 
sturdy manhood in their own lives ano they insist upon sound money in their 
business. (Great cheering.) It is gratifying to every lover of the country to ■ 
feel that this year the German-Americans of the United States are standing 

112 



unitedly for protection to American industries, for protection to Ameri- 
can labor, in favor of doing our work at home and by American citizens. 
(Enthusiastic applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') They are in favor 
of dollars worth one hundred cents each, and for steadfastly upholding our Na- 
tional honor, and are everywhere breaking with old party associations because 
that party under its new leadership is committed to inflation and a disordered 
currency. (Great cheering.) "We welcome them all, both for what they are, 
and what they have done, and we bid our German-American fellow citizens 
godspeed in every new effort in the broad fields of American business and 
statesmanship, literature, science, and art — to all of which they have already 
contributed so much. (Applause.) Gentlemen, I highly appreciate the honor 
of this call, and the significance of it more than I can find words to express, and 
it will give me sincere pleasure to meet and greet each of you personally." 
(Great cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') 



GREETINGS FROM COMRADES. 



The 5oldiers of San Francisco. 

San Francisco, California, August 10, 1896. 

"We, the McKinley Veteran Soldiers' and Sailors' Club, of San Francisco, 
send gi-eetings to our comrade, Major William McKinley of Ohio and declare : 

"Whereas, The Democratic Party, under the Administration of its Chief 
Executive, Grover Cleveland, has in its management, and the carrying out 
of its principles for the past three years, convinced all unbiased citizens that 
tariff for revenue only, coupled with free trade doctrine, has been a failure, as 
is evident by the bankruptcy of farmers and merchants, the closing of 
manufactories and the reduction of the wages of our mechanics and laborers, 
and the increase of our National debt by over $262,000,000 ; and 

Whereas, Under the wise and judicious management of the Eepublican 
Party, under its principles of tariff and protection to American products and 
labor, we were enabled not only to carry on the Government, but to reduce our 
immense National debt over sixty per cent, and thereby at the same time add 
to the wealth of the Nation, thus giving to the laborer an honest dollai* and. 
liberal wages and prosperity to all of our citizens ; therefore, be it 

T{esolved, That we, ex-Union veteran soldiers and sailors, again renew our 
fealty to the party of progress and prosperity ; that we endorse and give our 
hearty support to the nominees of the Eepublican National Convention of 
1896, and that we will do all in our power to further the election of William 
McKinley and Garret A. Hobart. 

Fergus Hanson, President. 
E. P. MoREY', Secretary. 

The One Hundred and Seventeenth New York. 

Sanquoit, New York, August 13, 1896. 
The One Hundred and Seventeenth New York Volunteers, in reunion assem- 
bled, send you a comrade's greeting and wish you success. 

Henry G. Estes, Secretary. 

113 



Two Gallant Pennsylvania Regiments. 

BrTLER, Pennsylvania, August 18, 1896. 
The One Hundred and First and One Hundred and Third Pennsylvania 
Veteran Volunteers, in annual reunion assembled, send greetings as comrades, 
and wish you every success and a glorious triumph in the great trust that 
is before you. John A. Eeed, President. 

Tlie Duty of Soldiers. 

BixGiiAMPTON, New York, August 19, 1898. 
The National Convention of the Union Veteran's Legion, now in session 
here, send you their cordial greetings. We will be addressed to-night by Gen. 
Daniel E. Sickles upon the duty of the old soldiers in the pi-esent National 

emergency. 

George E. Greene, Mayor. 

To which Major McKinley replied: 

Canton, Ohio, August 19, 1896. 
I very deeply regret that I can not join with my comrades of the Union Vet- 
eran's Legion at their eleventh National Encampment. Please convey to them 
my congratulations and best wishes. 

William McKinlky. 

The Thirty=Flrst Ohio. 

Granville, Ohio, August 19, 1896. 
The survivors of the Thirty-First Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, as- 
sembled at their eighteenth annual reunion, send gi'eetings. We stood by 
our Buckeye comrades, Grant, Hay^es, Garfield and Harrison, and we will 
stand by you. 

L. M. Cunard, President. 
S. A. McNeill, Secretary/. 

The Eighty-Sixth New York. 

Corning, New Vork, August 20, 1896. 
The Eighty-Sixth New York Veteran Volunteer Association, now in ses- 
sion, send you a soldier's greeting and pray for your victory. 

A. M. Dunham, Tresident. 

The Twenty-Ninth Ohio. 

Conneaut, Ohio, August 20, 1896. 
The Twenty-Ninth Ohio Veteran Volunteers, at Camp Harper, send greet- 
ings. Members present stand 90 to 2 for IMcKinley and Honest Money. 

J. B. Storer, Secretary. 

The Nineteenth Ohio. 

Cleveland, Ohio, August 26, 1896. 
The Nineteenth Ohio Veteran Infantry, in reunion assembled, sends greet- 
ings and is as solid for you in 1896 as it w'as for Brough in 1863. Vote just 
taken shows McKinley, 85 ; Bry'an 0. 

Philip D. Ruby, "President. 
T. A. By'erly, Secretary. 

The One Hundred and Twenty-Third Indiana. 

Connersville, Indiana, August 25, 1896. 
The One Hundred and Twenty-Third Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, in 
leunion assembled, having a decent respect for the opinions of mankind, de- 
clare that there is no doubt about your^standard of patriotism. We are for you, 

William S. Kaylor, Secretary. 
114 



THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 



Canton, Ohio, August 26, 1896. 
Hon. John M. Thurston, and others, Members of the Notification Committee of 
the Republican National Convention: 
Gentlemen: In pursuance of the promise made to your Committee, when 
notified of my nomination as the Republican candidate for President, I beg to 
submit this formal acceptance of that high honor, and to consider in detail ques- 
tions at issue in thependingcampaign. Perhaps this might be considered unnec- 
essary in view of my remarks on that occasion, and those Ihavemade to delega- 
tions that have visited me since the St. Louis Convention, but in view of the 
momentous importance of the proper settlement of the issues presented on our 
future prosperity and standing as a Nation, and considering only the welfare 
and happiness of our people, I could not be content to omit again calling atten- 
tion to the questions which in my opinion vitally affect our strength and position 
among the governments of the world, and our morality, integrity and patriotism 
as citizens of that Republic which for a century past has been the best hope of 
the world and the inspiration of mankind. We must not now prove false to our 
own high standards in government, nor unmindful of the noble example and 
wise precepts of the fathers, or of the confidence and trust which our conduct in 
the past has always inspired. 

The Free Coinage of Silver. 

For the first time since 1868, if ever before, there is presented to the Ameri- 
can people this year a clear and direct issue as to our monetary system, of vast 
importance in its effects, and upon the right settlement of which rests largely 
the financial honor and prosperity of the country. It is proposed by one wing 
jf the Democratic Party, and its allies the People's and Silver Parties, to inau- 
gurate the free and unlimited coinage of silver by independent actior '^n part of 
the United States at a ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one ounce of goiu. The 
mere declaration of this purpose is a menace to our financial and industrial 
interests and has already created universal alarm. It involves great peril to the 
credit and business of the country, a peril so grave that conservative men 
everywhere are breaking away from their old party associations and uniting 
with other patriotic citizens in emphatic protest against the platform of the 
jjemocratic National Convention as an assault upon the faith and honor of the 
Government and the welfai-e of the people. "VVe have had few questions in the 
lifetime of the Republic more serious than the one which is thus presented. 

No Benefit to Labor. 

The character of the money which shall measure our values and exchanges, 
and settle our balances with one another, and with the nations of the world, 
is of such primary importance, and so far reaching in its consequenci^s, as to 
call for the most painstaking investigation, and, in the end, a sober and 
unprejudiced judgment at the polls. We must not be misled by phraseo, nur 
deluded by false theories. Free silver would not mean that silver dollars 
were to be freely had without cost or labor. It would mean the free use Oi' 
the mints of the United States for the few who are owners of silver bullion, 
but would make silver coin no freer to the many who are engaged in other 
enterprises. It would not make labor easier, the hours of labor shorter, or the 

115 



pay better. It would not make farming less laborious, or more profitable. It 
would not start a factory, or make a demand for an additional day's labor. 
It would create no new occupations. It would add nothing to the comfort of 
the masses, the capital of the people, or the wealth of the Nation. It seeks to 
introduce a new measure of value, but would add no value to the thing meas- 
ured. It would not conserve values. On the contrary, it would derange all 
existing values. It would not restore business confidence, but its direct effect 
would be to destroy the little which yet remains. 

What It rieans. 

The meaning of the coinage plank adopted at Chicago is that any one may 
take a quantity of silver bullion now worth fifty-three cents to the mints of 
the United States, have it coined at the expense of the Government, and 
receive for it a silver dollar which shall be legal tender for the payment of all 
debts, public and private. The owner of the silver bullion would get the silver 
dollar. It would belong to him and to nobody else. Other people would get it 
only by their labor, the products of their land, or something of value. The 
bullion owner on the basis of present values would receive the silver dollar for 
fifty-three cents worth of silver, and other people would be required to receive 
it as a full dollar in the payment of debts. The Government would get nothing 
from the transaction. It would bear the expense of coining the silver and the 
community would suffer loss by its use. 

The Doilars Compared. 

We have coined since 1878 more than four hundred millions of silver dollars^ 
which are maintained by the Government at parity with gold, and are a full 
legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and private. How are the 
silver dollars now in use different from those which would be in use under free 
coinage? They are to be of the same w^eight and fineness; they are 
to bear the same stamp of the Government. Why would they not be of 
the same value? I answer: The silver dollars now in use were coined 
on account- of the Government, and not for private account or gain, and 
the G'~ . crnment has solemnly agreed to keep them as good as the best dollars 
v^ nave. The Government bought the silver bullion at its market value and 
coined it into silver dollars. Having exclusive control of the mintage, it only 
coins what it can hold at a parity with gold. The profit, representing the 
difference between the commercial value of the silver bullion and the face value 
of the silver dollar, goes to the Government for the benefit of the people. The- 
Government bought the silver bullion contained in the silver dollar at very 
much less than its coinage value. It paid it out to its creditors, and put it in 
circulation among the people at its face value of one hundred cents, or a full 
dollar. It required the people to accept it as a legal tender, and is thus morally 
bound to maintain it at a parity with gold, which was then, as now, the recog- 
nized standard with us, and the most enlightened nations of the world. The 
Government having issued and circulated the silver dollar, it must in honor 
protect the holder from loss. This obligation it has so far sacredly kept. Not 
only is there a moral obligation, but there is a legal obligation, expressed in 
public statute, to maintain the parity. 

They Could Not be Kept at Par. 

These dollars, in the particulars I have named, are not the same as the dol- 
lars which would be issued under free coinage. They would be the same in 
form, but different in value. The Government would have no part in the 

118 



transaction except to coin the silver bullion into dollars, It would share in no 
part of the profit. It would take upon itself no obligation. It would not put 
the dollars into circulation. It could only get them, as any citizen would get 
them, by giving something for them. It would deliver them to those who 
deposited the silver, and its connection with the transaction there end. Such 
are the silver dollars which would be issued under free coinage of silver at a 
ratio of sixteen to one. Who would then maintain the parity? "What would 
keep them at par with gold? There would be no obligation resting upon 
the Government to do it, and if there were, it would be powerless to do it. 
The simple truth is we would be driven to a silver basis — to silver monometal- 
ism. These dollars, therefore, would stand upon their real value. If the free 
and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one 
ounce of gold would, as some of its advocates assert, make fifty-three cents in 
silver worth one hundred cents, and the silver dollar equal to the gold dollar, 
then we would have no cheaper money than now, and it would be no easier to 
get. But that such would be the result is against reason and is contradicted 
by experience in all times and in all lands. It means the debasement of our 
currency to the amount of the difference between the commercial and the coin 
value of the silver dollar, which is ever changing, and the eflfect would be to 
reduce property values, entail untold financial loss, destroy confidence, im- 
pair the obligations of existing contracts, further impoverish the laborers 
and producers of the country, create a panic of unparalleled severity, and 
infiict upon trade and commerce a deadly blow. Against any such policy, I 
am unalterably opposed. 

Bimetalism. 

Bimetalism can not be secured by independent action on our part. It can 
not be obtained by opening our mints tg the unlimited coinage of the silver of 
the world, at a ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one ounce of go,ld, when the 
commercial ratio is more than thirty ounces of silver to one ounce of gpld. 
Mexico and China have tried the experiment. Mexico has free coinage of sil- 
ver and gold at a ratio slightly in excess of sixteen and a half ounces of silver 
to one ounce of gold, and while her mints are freely open to both metals at 
that ratio, not a single dollar in gold bullion is coined and circulated as money. 
Gold has been driven out of circulation in these countries and they are on a 
silver basis alone. Until international agreement is had, it is the plain duty 
of the United States to maintain the gold standard. It is the recognized and 
sole standard of the great commercial nations of the world, with which we 
trade more largely than any other. Eighty-four per cent of our foreign trade 
for the fiscal year 1895 was with gold standard countries, and our trade with 
other countries was settled on a gold basis. 

We Now Have More Silver Than Gold. 

Chiefly by means of legislation during and since 1878 there has been put in 
circulation more than!i!624,000,000of silver, or its representative. This has been 
done in the honest effort to give to silver, if possible, the same bullion and 
coinage value, and encourage the concurrent use of both gold and silver as 
money Prior to that time there had been less than nine millons of silver 
dollars coined in the entire history of the United States, a period of eighty-nine 
years. This legislation secures the largest use of silver consistent with 
financial safety and the pledge to maintain its parity with gold. We have 
to-day more silver than gold. This has been accomplished at times with grave 

117 



peril to the public credit. The so called Snerman law sought to use all the- 
silver product of the United States for money at its market value. From 1890- 
to 1893 tlie Government purchased 4,500,000 ounces of silver a month, or 54,- 
000,000 ounces a year. This vsras one-third of the product of the world and 
practically all of this country's product. It was believed by those who then 
and now favor free coinage that such use of silver would advance its bullion 
value to its coinage value, but this expectation was not realized. In a few 
months, notwithstanding the unprecedented market for the silver produced in 
the United States, the price of silver went down very rapidly, reaching a lower 
point than ever before. Then, upon the recommendation of President Cleve- 
land, both political parties united in the repeal of the purchasing clause of the 
Sherman law. We can not with safety engage in further experiments in this 
direction. 

The Double Standard. 

On the 22nd of August, 1891, in a public address, I said : "If we could have 
an international ratio, which all the leading nations of the world would adopt, 
and the true relation be fixed between the two metals, and all agree upon the 
quantity of silver which should constitute a dollar, then silver would be as free 
and unlimited in its privileges of coinage as gold is to-day. But that we have 
not been able to secure, and with the free and unlimited coinage of silver 
adopted in the United States, at the present ratio, we would be still further 
removed from any international agreement. We may never be able to secure 
it if we enter upon the isolated coinage of silver. The double standard implies 
equality at a ratio, and that equality can only be established by the concurrent 
law of nations. It was the concurrent law of nations that made the double 
standard ; it will require the concurrent law of nations to reinstate and 
sustain it." 

It Favors the Use of Silver Money. 

The Republican Party has not been, and is not now, opposed to the use of 
silver money, as its record abundantly shows. It has done all that could be 
done for its increased use, with safety and honor, by the United States acting 
apart from other governments. There are those who think that it has already 
gone beyond tlie limit of financial prudence. Surely we can go no further, and 
we must not permit false lights to lure us across the danger line. 

riore than any Other Country. 

We have much more silver in use tlian any country in the world except 
India or China— $500,000,000 more than Great Britain ; $150,000,000 more than 
France; $400,000,000 more than Germany; $325,000,000 less than India, and 
$125,000,000 less than China. The Republican Party has declared in favor of an 
international agreement, and if elected President it will be my duty to employ 
all proper means to promote it. The free coinage of silver in this country 
would defer, if not defeat, international bimetalism, and until an international 
agreement can be had every interest requires us to maintain our present stand- 
ard. Independent free coinage of silver at a ratio of sixteen ounce's of silver 
to one ounce of gold would insure the speedy contraction of the volume of our 
currency. It would drive at least five hundred millions of gold dollars,, which 
we now have, permanently from the trade of the country, and greatly decrease 
our per capita circulation. It is not proposed by the Republican Party to take 
from the circulating medium of the country any of the silver we now have. 
On the contrary it is proposed to keep all of the silver money now in circulation 

118 



on a parity with gold by maintaining the pledge of the Government that all of 
it shall be equal to gold. This has been the unbroken policy of the'Eepublican 
Party since 1878. It has inaugurated no new policy. It will keep in circulation 
and as good as gold all of the silver and paper money which are now included 
in the currency of the country. It will maintain their parity. It will preserve 
their equality in the future as it has always done in the past. It will not con- 
sent to put this country on a silver basis, which would inevitably follow inde- 
pendent free coinage at a ratio of sixteen to one. It will oppose the expulsion 
of gold from our circulation. 

Farmers and Laborers Suffer flost. 

If there is any one tiling which should be free from speculation and fluc- 
tuation it is the money of a country. It ought never to be the subject of mere 
partisan contention. When we part with our labor, our products, or our 
property, we should receive in return money which is as stable and unchanging 
in value as the ingenuity of honest men can make it. Debasement of the 
currency means destruction of values. No one suffers so much from cheap 
money as the farmers and laborers. They are the first to feel its bad effects 
and the last to recover from them. This has been the uniform experience of all 
countries, and here, as elsewhere, the poor, and not the rich, are always the 
greatest sufferers from every attempt to debase our money. It would fall with 
alarming severity upon investments already made ; upon insxu-ance companies 
and their policy holders ; upon savings banks and their depositors ; upon build- 
ing and loan associations and their members ; upon the savings of thrift ; upon 
pensioners and their families ; and upon wage earners and the purchasing 
power of their wages. 

Unlimited Irredeemable Paper floney. 

The silver question is not the only issue affecting our money in the pending 
contest. Kot content with urging the free coinage of silver, its strongest cham- 
pions demand that our paper money shall be issued directly by the Government 
of the United States. This is the Chicago Democratic declaration. The St. 
Louis People's declaration is that "our National money shall be issued by the 
General Government only, without the intervention of banks of issue, be full 
legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and private," and be distributed 
"dii*ect to the people, and through lawful disbursements of the Govern- 
ment." Thus in addition to the free coinage of the world's silver we are asked 
to enter upon an era of unlimited irredeemable paper cuiTency. The question 
which was fought out from 1865 to 1879 is thus to be re-opened, with all its 
uncertainties, and cheap money experiments of every conceivable form foisted 
upon us. This indicates a most startling reactionary policy, strangely at 
variance with every requirement of sound finance ; but the declaration shows 
the spirit and purpose of those who by combined action are contending for the 
control of the Government. Not satisfied with the debasement of our coin which 
would inevitably follow the free coinage of silver at sixteen to one, they would 
still further degrade our currency and threaten the public honor by the 
unlimited issue of an irredeemable paper currency. A graver menace to our 
financial standing and credit could hardly be conceived, and every patriotic 
citizen should be aroused to promptly meet and effectually defeat it. 

In the Highest Degree Reprehensible. 

It is a cause for painful regret and solicitude that an effort is being made 
by those high in the counsels of the allied parties to divide the people of this 

119 



country into classes and create distinctions among us, which, in fact, do not 
exist, and are repugnant to our form of government. These appeals to passion 
and prejudice are beneath the spirit and intelligence of a free people, and 
should be met with stern rebuke by those they are sought to influence, and I 
believe they will be. Every attempt to array class against class, "the classes 
against the masses," section against section, labor against capital, "the poor 
against the rich," or interest against interest in the United States, is in the 
highest degree reprehensible. It is opposed to the National instinct and inter- 
est and should be resisted by every citizen. We are not a nation of classes, 
but of sturdy, free, independent and honorable people, despising the dema- 
gogue, and never capitulating to dishonor. This ever recurring effort endan- 
gers popular government and is a menace to our liberties. It is not a new 
campaign device or party appeal. It is as old as government among men, but 
was never more untimely and unfortunate than now. Washington warned us 
against it, and Webster said in the Senate, in words which I feel are singularly 
appropriate at this time: "I admonish the people against the object of out- 
cries like these. I admonish every industrious laborer of this country to be on 
his guard against such delusion. I tell him the attempt is to play off his pas- 
sion against his interest, and to prevail on him, in the name of liberty, to 
destroy all the fruits of liberty," 

Protection of Supreme Importance. 

Another issue of supreme importance is that of Protection. The peril of 
free silver is a menace to be feared ; we are already experiencing the effect of 
partial free trade. The one must be averted ; the other corrected. The 
Eepublican Party is wedded to the doctrine of Protection and was never more 
earnest in its support and advocacy than now. If argument were needed to 
strengthen its devotion to "the American system," or increase the hold of 
that system upon the party and people, it is found in the lesson and experi- 
ence of the past three years. Men realize in their own daily lives what before 
was to many of them only report, history or tradition. They have had a trial 
of both systems and know what each has done for them. 

Demanded by the Public Exigencies. 

Washington, in his Farewell Address, September 17, 1796, a hundred years 
ago, said: " As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public 
credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible ; avoid- 
ing the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but 
by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoida- 
ble wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the 
burden which we ourselves ought to bear." To facilitate the enforcement of 
the maxims which he announced he declared : "It is essential that you should 
practically bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be rev- 
enue ; that to have revenue there must be taxes ; that no taxes can be devised 
which are not more or less inconvenient or unpleasant ; that the intrinsic em- 
barrassment inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is 
always a choice of difficulties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construc- 
tion of the conduct of the Government in making it ; and for a spirit of acqui- 
escence in the measures for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies may 
at any time dictate." 

Animated by like sentiments the people of the country must now face the 
conditions which beset them. "The public exigencies" demand prompt pro- 

120 



tective legislation which will avoid the accumulation of further debt by provid- 
ng adequate revenues for the expenses of the Government. This is manifestly 
the requirement of duty. If elected President of the United States it will be 
my aim to vigorously promote this object, and give that ample encouragement 
to the occupations of the American people, which, above all else, is so impera- 
tively demanded at this juncture of our National affairs. 

Our Condition in December, 1893. 

In December, 1892, President Harrison sent his last message to Congress. 
It was an able and exhaustive review of the condition and resources of the coun- 
try. It stated our situation so accurately that I am sure it will not be amiss 
to recite his official and valuable testimony. "There never has been a time in 
our history," said he, "when work was so abundant, or when wages were so 
high, whether measured by the currency in which they are paid, or by their 
power to supply the necessaries and comforts of life. The general average of 
prices has been such as to give to agriculture a fair participation in the general 
prosperity. The new industrial plants established since October 6, 1890, and up 
to October 22, 1892, number 345, and the extensions of existing plants, 108. 
The new capital invested amounts to $40,446,060, and the number of additional 
employes, 37,285. During the first six months of the present calendar year, 
135 new factories were built, of which forty were cotton mills, forty-eight knit- 
ting mills, twenty-six woolen mills, fifteen silk mills, four plush mills, and two 
linen mills. Of the forty cotton mills, twenty-one have been built in the 
Southern States." This fairly describes the ha^jpy condition of the country in 
December, 1892. "What has it been since, and what is it now? 

Our Condition Eight flonths Later. 

The messages of President Cleveland from the beginning of his second 
administration to the present time abound with descriptions of the deplorable 
industrial and financial situation of the country. While no resort to history 
OT official statement is required to advise us of the present condition, and that 
wnich has prevailed during the past three years, I venture to quote from 
President Cleveland's first message, August 8, 1893, addressed to the Fifty- 
Third Congress, which he had called together in extraordinary session. "The 
3xistence of an alarming and extraordinary session. "The existence of an 
alarming and extraordinary business situation," said he, "involving the wel- 
fare and prosperity of all our people, has constrained me to call together in 
•extra session the people's representatives in Congress, to the end that through 
the wise and patriotic exercise of the legislative duties with which they 
solely are charged, the present evils may be mitigated and dangers threatening 
the future may be averted. Our unfortunate financial plight is not the result 
•of untoward events, nor of conditions related to our natural resources. Nor is 
it traceable to any of the afflictions which frequently check National growth 
and prosperity. With plenteous crops, with abundant promise of remunera- 
tive production and manufacture, with unusual invitation to safe investment, 
•and with satisfactory assurances to business enterprises, suddenly financial dis- 
trust and fear have sprung up on every side. Numerous monied institutions 
Slave suspended, because abundant assets were not immediately available 
to meet the demands of frightened depositors. Surviving corporations and 
individuals are content to keep in hand the money they are usually anxious 
to loan, and those engaged in legitimate business are surprised to find that the 
securities they offer for loans, though heretofore satisfactory, are no longer 

121 



accepted. Values supposed to be fixed are fast becoming conjectural and loss 
and failure have invaded every branch of business. " 

The Cause of the Change. 

What a startling and sudden change within the short period of eight 
months, from December, 1892, to August, 1893 ! What had occurred? A change 
of administration; all branches of the Government had been entrusted to the 
Democratic Party, which was committed against the protective policy that 
had prevailed uninterruptedly for more than thirty-two years and brought 
unexampled prosperity to the country, and firmly pledged to its complete over- 
throw and the substitution of a tariff for revenue only. The change having 
been decreed by the elections in November, its effects were at once anticipated 
and felt. We can not close our eyes to these altered conditions, nor would it 
be wise to exclude from contemplation and investigation the causes which pro- 
duced them. They are facts which we can not as a people disregard, and we 
can only hope to improve our present condition by a study of their causes. In 
December, 1892, we had the same currency and practically the same volume 
ofcurrency that we have now. It aggregated in 1892, $2,372,599,.501 ; in 1893 
$2,323,000,000; in 1894, $2,323,442,362; and in December, 1895, $2,194,000,230. 
The per capita of money, too, has been practically the same during this whole 
period. The quality of the money has been identical — all kept equal to gold. 
There is nothing connected with our money, therefore, to account for this: 
sudden and aggravated industrial change. Whatever is to be deprecated in 
our financial system, it must everywhere be admitted that our money has been 
absolutely good and has brought neither loss nor inconvenience to its holders. 
A depreciated currency has not existed to further vex the troubled business 
situation. 

Good rioney Never flade Times Hard. 

^t is a mere pretence to attribute the hard times to the fact that all our 
currency is on a gold basis. Good money never made times hard. Those who 
assert that our present industrial and financial depression is the result of 
the gold standard, have not read American history aright, or been careful 
students of the events of recent years. We never had greater prosperity in this 
country, in every field of employment and industry, than in the busy years 
from 1880 to 1892, during all of which time this country was on a gold basis and 
employed more gold money in its fiscal and business operations than ever 
before. We had, too, a protective tariff under which ample revenues were col- 
lected for the Government and an accumulating surplus which was constantly 
applied to the payment of the public debt. Let us hold fast to that .which we 
know is good. It is not more money we want ; what we want is to put the 
money we already have at work. When money is employed, men are employed. 
Both have always been steadily and remuneratively engaged during all the 
years of protective tariff legislation. When those who have money lack con- 
fidence in the stability of values and investments, they will not part with their 
money. Business is stagnated — the life-blood of trade is checked and congest- 
ed. We can not restore public confidence by an act which would revolutionize 
all values, or an act which entails a deficiency in the public revenues. We can 
not inspire confidence by advocating repudiation or practicing dishonesty. We 
can not restore confidence either to the Treasury or to the people without a- 
change in our present tariff legislation. 

122 



The Tariff of 1894. 

The only measure of a general nature that affectea the Treasui-y and the 
employments of our people passed by the Fifty-Third Congress was the general 
Tariff Act, which did not receive the approval of the President. Whatever vir- 
tues may be claimed for that Act there is confessedly one which it does not pos- 
sess. It lacks the essential virtue of its creation — the raising of revenue sufficient 
to supply the needs of the Government. It has at no time provided enough 
revenue for such needs, but it has caused a constant deficiency in the Treasury 
and a steady depletion in the earnings of labor and land. It has contributed to 
swell our National debt more than $262,000,000, a sum nearly as great as the 
debt of the Government from Washixgtox to Lincoln, including all our foreign 
wars from the Revolution to the Eebellion. Since its passage, work at home 
has been dimished ; prices of agricultural products have fallen ; confidence has 
been arrested, and general business demoralization is seen on every hand. 

The Tariffs of 1890 and 1894 Contrasted. 

The total receipts under the Tariff Act of 1894 for the first twenty-two 
months of its enforcement, from September, 1894, to June, 1896, were 
$557,615,328, and the expenditures $640,418,363, or a deficiency of $82,803,035. 
The decrease in our exports of American products and manufactures during the 
first fifteen months of the present tariff, as contrasted with the exports of the 
first fifteen months of the tariff of 1890, was $220,353,320. The excess of exports 
over imports during the first fifteen months of the tariff of 1890 was $213,972,968 
but only $56,758,623 under the first fifteen months of the tariff of 1894, a loss 
under the latter of $157,214,345. The net loss in the trade balance of the 
United States has been $196,983,607 during the first fifteen months' operation 
of the tariff of 1894, as compared with the first fifteen months of the tariff of 
1890, The loss has been large, constant and steady, at the rate of $13,130,000 
per month, or $500,000 for every business day of the year. 

Losing in Both Directions. 

■\Ve have either been sending too much money out the country, or getting too 
little in, or both. We have lost steadily in both directions. Our foreign trade 
lias been diminished and our domestic trade has suffered incalculable loss. 
Does not this suggest the cause of our. present depression, and indicate its 
remedy? Confidence in home enterprises has almost wholly disappeared. Our 
shops are closed, or running on half time at reduced wages and small profit, if 
not actual loss. Our men at home are idle and while they are idle men abroad 
ai*e occupied in supplying us with goods. Our unrivaled home market for the 
farmer has also gi-eatly suffered because those who constitute it — the great 
army of American wage earners — are without the work and wages they formerly 
had. If they can not earn wages they can not buy products. They can not earn if 
they have no employment, and when they do not earn the farmer's home market 
is lessened and impaired, and the loss is felt by both producer and consumer. 
The loss of earning power alone in this country in the past three years is sufficient 
to have produced our unfortunate business situation. If our labor was well 
employed, and employed at as remunerative wages as in 1892, in a few months 
every farmer in the land would feel the glad change in the inci'eased demand 
for his products and in the better prices which he would receive. 

Not Open Hints but Open Hills. 

It is not an increase in the volume of money which is the need of the time, 
but an increase in the volume of business. Not an increase of coin, but an in- 

123 



crease of confidence. Not more coinage, but a more active use of the money 
coined. Not open mints for the unlimited coinage of the silver of the world, 
but open mills for the full and unrestricted labor of American workingmen; The 
employment of our mints for the coinage of the silver of the world would not 
bring the necessaries and comforts of life back to our people. This will only 
come with the employment of the masses and such employment is certain to 
follow the re-establishment of a wise protective policy which shall encourage 
manufacturing at home. Protection has lost none of its virtue and importance. 
The first duty of the Republican Party, if restored to power in the country, 
will be the enactment of a tariff law which will raise all the money necessary 
to conduct the Government, economically and honestly administered, and so 
adjusted as to give preference to home manufactures and adequate protection 
to home labor and the home market. We are not committed to any special 
schedules or rates ot duty. They are and should be always subject to change 
to meet new conditions, but the principle upon which rates of duty are imposed 
renuu"ns the same. Our duties should alway? be high enough to measure the 
difference between. the wages paid labor at home and in competing countries, 
and to adequately protect American investments and American enterprises. 

Our Farmers and the Tariff. 

Our farmers have been hurt by the changes in our tariff legislation as se- 
verely as our laborers and manufactm-ers, badly as they have suffered. The 
Republican platform wisely declares in favor of such encouragement to our 
sugar mterests " as will lead to the production on American soil of all the sugar 
which the American people use." It promises to our wool and woolen interests 
" the most ample protection," a guaranty that ought to commend itself to every 
patriotic citizen. Never was a more grievous wrong done the farmers of our 
country than that so unjustly inflicted during the past three years upon the 
wool growers of America. Although among our most industrious and useful 
citizens, their interests have been practically desti'oyed and our woolen manu- 
facturers involved in similar disaster. At no time within the past thirty-six 
years, and perhaps never during any previous period, have so many of out 
woolen factories been suspended as now. The Republican Party can be relied 
upon to correct these great wrongs, if again entrusted with the control of 
Congi-ess. 

Reciprocity. 

A^nother declaration of the Republican platform that has my most cordial 
support, is that which favors Reciprocity. The splendid results of the Recipro- 
city arrangements that were made under authority of the Tariff Law of 1890 are 
striking and suggestive. The brief period they were in force, in most cases 
only three years, was not long enough to thoroughly test their great value, but 
sufficient was shown by the trial to conclusively demonstrate the importance 
and the wisdom of their adoption. In 1892, the export trade of the United 
States attained the highest point in our history. The aggi-egate of our exports 
that year reached the immense sum of $1,030,278,148, a sum gi-eater by $100,- 
000,000 than the exports of any previous year. In 1893, owing to the threat of 
unfriendly tariff legislation, the total dropped to $847,665, 194. Our exports of 
domestic merchand-"se decreased $189,000,000, but Reciprocity still secured us a 
large trade in Central and South America, and a larger trade with thfe West 
Indies than we had ever before enjoyed. The increase of the trade with the 
countries with which we had Reciprocity agreements was $3,560,515 over our 
trade in 1892. and $16,440,721 over our trade in 1891. The only countries with 

124 



which the United States traded that showed increased exports in 1893 were 
practically thost with which we had Reciprocity arrangements. The Recipro- 
city treaty between this country and Spain, touching the markets of Cuba and 
Puerto Rico, was announced September 1, 1891. The growth of our trade with 
Cuba was phenomenal. In 1891 we sold that country but 114,441 barrels of flour ; 
in 1892, 366.175; in 1893, 616,406; and in 1894, 662,248. Here was a growth of 
nearly five hundred per cent, while our exportations of flour to Cuba for the 
year ending June 30, 1895,— the year following the repeal of the Reciprocity 
treaty— fell to 379,856 barrels, a loss of nearly half our trade with that 
countr}. The value of our total exports of merchandise from the United 
States to Cuba in 1891,— the year prior to the negotiation of the Reciprocity 
treaty— was $12,224,888; in 1892, $17,953,579; in 1893, $24,157,698 ; in 1894, $20,- 
125,321 ; but in 1895, after the annulment of the Reciprocity agreement, it feU 
to only $12,887,661. Many similar examples might be given of our increased 
trade under Reciprocity with other countries, but enough has been shown of 
the efficacy of the legislation of 1890 to justify the speedy restoration of its 
Reciprocity provisions. In my judgment. Congress should immediately restore 
the Reciprocity sections of the old law, with such amendments, if any, as time 
and experience sanction as wise and proper. The underlying principle of this 
legislation must, however, be strictly observed. It is to afford new markets for 
our surplus agi-icultural and manufactured products, without loss to the Amer- 
ican laborer of a single day's work that he might otherwise procure. 

Foreign Immigration. 

The declaration of the platform touching Foreign Immigi'ation is one of 
peculiar importance at this time, when our ovm laboring people are in such 
great distress. I am in hearty sympathy with the present legislation restrict- 
ing foreign immigration, and favor such extension of the laws as will secure 
the United States from invasion by the debased and criminal classes of the Old 
World. While we adhere to the public policy under which our country has 
received great bodies of honest, industrioua citizens, who have added to the 
wealth, progress, and power of the country, and while we welcome to our shores 
the weU-disposed and industrious immigrant who contributes by his energy and 
intelligence to the cause Oi free government, we want no immigi-ants who do 
not seek our shores to become citizens. We should permit none to participate 
in the advantages of our 'vilization who do not sympathize with our aims and 
form of government. We should receive none who come tn make war upon our 
institutions and profit by public disquiet and turmoil. Against all such our 
gates must be tightly closed. 

Our Soldiers and Sailors. 

The soldiers and sailors of the Union should neither be neglected nor for- 
gotten. The Government which they served so weU mu(fc>t no make their lives 
or condition harder by treating them as suppliants for relief in old age or dis- 
tress, nor regard with disdain of contempt the earnest interest one comrade 
naturally manifests in the welfare of another. Doubtless there have been 
pension abuses and frauds in the numerous claims allowed by tlie Government, 
but the policy governing the administration of the Pension Bureau must always 
be fair and liberal. No deserving applicant should ever sulfer because of a 
wrong perpetrated by or fo another. Our soldiers and sailors gave the Gov- 
ernment the best they had. They freely offered health, strength, limb and life 
to save the country in the time of its greatest peril, and the Government must 

125 



honor them in their need as in their service with the respect and gratitude due 
to brave, noble and self-sacrificing men who are justly entitled to generous aid 
in their increasing necessities. 

The Merchant flarine and Navy. 

The declaration of the Republican platform in favor of the upbuilding of our 
Merchant Marine has my hearty approval. The policy of discriminating duties 
in favor of our shipping which prevailed in the early years of our history should 
be again promptly adopted by Congi-ess and vigorously supported until our 
prestige and supremacy on the seas is fully attained. We should no longer 
contribute directly or indirectly to the maintenance of the colossal marine of 
foreign countries, but provide an efficient and complete marine of our own. 
Now that the American Navy is assuming a position commensurate with our 
importance as a Nation, a policy I am glad to observe the Republican platform 
strongly endorses, we must supplement it with a Merchant Marine that will 
give us the advantages in both our coastwise and foreign trade that we ought 
naturally and properly to enjoy. It should be at once a matter of public policy 
and National pride to repossess this immence and prosperous trade. 

Civil Service Reform. 

The pledge of the Republican National Convention that our civil service 
laws "shall be sustained and thoroughly and honestly enforced, and extended 
wherever practicable," is in keeping with the position of the party for the past 
twenty-four years, and will be faithfully observed. Our opponents decry these 
reforms. They appear willing to abandon all the advantages gained, after so 
many years' agitation and effort. They encourage a return to methods of 
party favoritism which both parties have often denounced, that experience 
has condemned, and that the people have repeatedly disapproved. The 
Republican Party earnestly opposes this reactionary and entirely unjustifiable 
policy. It will take no backward step upon the question. It will seek to 
'mprove, but never degrade the public service. 

It Demands Especial Attention. 

There are other important and timely declarations in the platform which I 
can not here discuss. I must content myself with saying that they have my ap- 
proval. If, as Republicans, we have lately addressed cur attention, with what may 
seem great stress and earnestness, to the new and unexpected assault upon the 
financial integrity of the Government, we have done it because the menace is 
so grave as to demand especial consideration, and because we are convinced 
that if the people are aroused to the true understanding and meaning of this 
silver and inflation movement they will avert the danger. In doing this we 
feel that we render the best service possible to the country, and we appeal to 
the intelligence, conscience and patriotism of the people, irrespective of party, 
or section, for their earnest support. 

It will flaintain Law and Order. 

We avoid no issues. We meet the sudden, dangerous and revolutionary 
assault upon law and order, and upon those to whom is confided by the Consti- 
tUi,ion and laws the authority to uphold and maintain them, which our oppo- 
nents have made, with the same courage that we have faced every emergency 
since our organization as a party, more than forty years ago. Government by 
law must first be assured ; everything else can wait. The spirit of lawlessness 

126 



must be extinguished by the fires of an unselfish and lofty patriotism. Every 
attack upon the public fa-ith and every suggestion of the repudiation of debts, 
public or private, must be rebuked by all men who believe that honesty is the 
best of policy, or who love their country and would preserve unsullied its Na- 
tional honor. 

Sectionalism Almost Obliterated. 

The country is to be congratulated upon the almost total obliteration of the 
■sectional lines which for so many years marked the division of the United 
States into slave and free territory, and finally threatened its partition into two 
separate governments by the dread ordeal of civil war. The era of reconcilia- 
tion, so long and earnestly desired by General Grant and many other great 
leaders. North and South, has happily come, and the feeling of distrust and hos- 
tility between the sections is everywhere vanishing, let us hope never to return. 
Nothing is better calculated to give strength to the Nation at home, increase 
our power' and influence abroad, and add to the permancy and security of our 
free institutions, than the restoration of cordial relations between the people of 
all sections and parts of our beloved country. If called by the suffrages of the 
people to assume the duties of the high office of President of the United States, 
I shall count it a privilege to aid, even in the slightest degree, in the promotion 
of the spirit of fraternal regard which should animate and govern the citizens 
of every section. State, or part of the Republic. After the lapse of a century 
since its utterance, let us, at length, and forever hereafter, heed the admonition 
of Washington : "There should be no North, no South, no East, no West — but 
a common country." It shall be my constant aim to improve every oppoi'tunity 
to advance the cause of good government by promoting that spirit of forbear- 
ance and justice which is so essential to our prosperity and happiness by ]om- 
ing most heartily in all proper efforts to restore the relations of brotherly 
respect and affection wliich in our early history characterized all the people of 
all the States. I would be glad to contribute towards binding in indivisible 
union the different divisions of the country, which, indeed, now "have every 
inducement of sympathy and interest" to weld them together more strongly 
than ever. I would rejoice to see demonstrated to the world, that the North 
and the South and the East and the West are not separated, or in danger of 
becoming separated, because of sectional or party differences. The war is long 
since over ; "we are not enemies, but friends," and as friends we will faithfully 
and cordially co-opei*ate, under the approving smile of Him who has thus far so 
signally sustained and guided us, to preserve inviolate our country's name and 
honor, its peace and good order and its continued ascendency among the gi-eat- 
est governments on earth. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM MoKINLEY. 



127 



EVERYWHERE CORDIALLY RECEIVED. 



Following are a few of the hundreds of messages of congratulation received 
by Major McKinley upon his masterly Letter of Acceptance. No similar paper 
was ever more cordially received by the American people : 

Hon. "William B, Allison, U. S. Senator, Dubuque Iowa: "I want to con- 
gratulate you on your Letter of Acceptance. It is most admirable in temper, 
spirit and style, and is unanswerable in statement. I especially wish to con- 
gratulate you on your discussion of the money question. Your positions are 
unassailable and you argue the question with consummate skill. This is better 
than a thousand speeches from the rear end of a ear. When you want to say 
anything you can say it to visiting delegations and I am sure you will in the 
future,'as in the past, say the right thing at the right time and in the right 
way. Your* Letter will greatly aid the wavering and ought to convince every 
intelligent man." 

Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, U. 8. Senator, Nahant, Massachusetts: "I do 
not want to add to the burden of your immense correspondence, and yet I can 
not deny myself the pleasure of sending you a line to congratulate you most 
warmly on your Letter. It seems to be admirable, strong, clear, and states- 
manlike. It will be of great service to the party and the cause. It is well 
balanced in the treatment of the subjects and the arguments are given with a 
dignity and force which must command attention everywhere. " 

Hon. Eugene Hale, IT. S. Senator, Ellsworth, Maine: "Your Letter of 
Acceptance, which is able, wise, and in every way admirable, is doing good 
everywhere, and will help us in the end." 

Hon. Stephen B. Elkins, U. S. Senator, Elkins, West Virginia: "It is 
seldom that I can with entire candor give my unqualified approval to all and 
every part of a public document or state paper ; but 1 have the greatest pleas- 
ure in saying that I can do so in the matter of your Letter of Acceptance. I 
do not know wherein it could be changed for the better. It is a strong state- 
ment of our case and is the whole argument concisely and forcibly stated, and 
at the same time in the best possible style." 

Hon. Nelson Dingley, Jr., M. C, Chairman of the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee, House of Representatives, Lewiston, Maine: "I have just returned 
from a week's speaking tour in various parts of Maine and I take my first 
opportunity to express to you my great gratification at your most admirable 
Letter of Acceptance. It could not have been «mproved. It furnishes the key- 
note of the campaign, and presents the arguments so clearly and convinc- 
ingly that it will prove a tower of strength in the campaign." 

Hon. Charles H. Grosvenor, M. C, Athens, Ohio: "I congratulate you, 
the Republican Party, and the whole country upon your splendid Letter of 
Acceptance. Nothing omitted, nothing said too strongly. A great paper." 

Hon. D. K. Watson, M.C., Columbus, Ohio: "Your Letter is your great- 
est production and is as sound as a gold dollar." 

Hon. John A. T. Hull, M. C, Des Moines, Iowa: "Accept congratulations 
on your comprehensive and statesmanlike Letter.. It could not be improved." 

128 



Hon. Joseph W. Babcock, M. C., Nacedah, Wisconsin, Chairman of th^ 
Republican Congressional Committee, from "Washington, D. C: "Accept 
my hearty congratulations upon your Letter of Acceptance. Your cleur and 
concise statement of the facts, and your own views, so ably and patriotically 
expressed, will bring to your support a very large number who have heretofore 
been undecided." 

Hon. William Alden Smith, M. C, Grand Rapids, Michgan: "Your Letter 
of Acceptance is the best campaign document presented to'the country and will 
do us all good. Congratulations." 

Hon . Lewis D. Apsley, M. C . , Hudson, Massachusetts, from San Francisco; 
"Your Letter is very apt and wise. Please accept my congratulations." 

Hon. Samuel J. Pugh, M. C, Vanceburg, Kentucky: "Accept hearty con- 
gratulations upon the wisdom of your Letter of Acceptance. You have made a 
rent in the already punctured free silver bubble, precipitating a collapse." 

Hon. James H. Huling, M. C, Charleston, West Virginia: "Allow me to 
congratulate you upon your Letter of Acceptance. Your sound judgment in 
resisting every effort to abandon the protective issue is indeed gratifying. We 
will win this race by virtue of the tariff of 1890." 

Hon. George W. Wilson, M. C, London, Ohio: "Your Letter of Accept- 
ance is admirable. I neverread one so able and convincing. I believe it wiD 
make you thousands of votes. Your presentation of the leading questions is 
is incomparably the best that has been made anywhere. The common people 
can understand you and whoever reads must be convinced. Your bold and 
determined stand for protection meets my hearty approval. It is directed tc 
every true Eepublican and in the end will hold them in line against the 
heresy of free coinage. Your friendly interest in bimetalism will satisfy 
those who want sound money along with bimetalism. Your arguments for 
sound money are unanswerable, and many who were going astray will return. 
I believe tliere \^ill be rapid changes in your favor from this on and that you 
will be elected by a safe electoral vote and an overwhelming popular vote." 

Hon. H, Clay Evans, Chattanooga, Tennessee: "Your Letter is grandlj 
patriotic and it will find response in every honest heart in the Nation." 

Hon, Charles W. Fairbanks, Indianapolis: "Your Letter is absolutely per- 
fect. It could not be improved. It meets cordial and general approval." 

M. A. Hanna, Chairman Republican National Committee, New York 
City: "Hearty congratulations on your Letter of Acceptance. Everybody 
here is highly pleased with it." 

William M. Osborne, Secretary Republican National Committee, New 
York City: "Your Letter of Acceptance gives universal satisfaction. It has 
the unqualified approval of both press and people." 

Hon Joseph H. Manley, Augusta, Maine: "Your Letter is a masterpiece. 
It will give inspiration to all who believe in the future of the Republic. I offer 
you my hearty congratulations." 

Dr. T. N. Jamieson, Chicago: "Illinois is unanimous in her praise of your 
magnificent Letter of Acceptance. Ic seems to strike the key note of the issues 
before us with all classes from toiler to capitalist.' It is the only subject 
talked of on the streets to-day. " 

1;^ 



Gen. Powell Clayton, Eureka Springs, Arkansas, from New York: "1 
congratulate you upon your Letter. It is without a flaw and unanswerable." 

Hon. Henry C. Payne, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from Chicago: "Permit 
me to congratulate you upon the plain, straightforward, able manner in 
which your Letter of Acceptance deals with the questions now agitating 
the public mind. It is such a simple and clear statement of the issues 
involved in the present campaign that it will be of incalculable benefit in 
leading those aright who are now faltering." 

Charles G. Dawes, member Eepublican National Executive Committee, 
Chicago: "The reception which public opinion is giving your Letter proves 
that a greatemergency existed, and that, as always, you have proven equal 
to it. I again send my congratulations and rejoice with jou." 

Hon. Cyrus Leland, Jr., Troy, Kansas, from Chicago: "I congratulate you 
on your Letter. It is the best campaign document we will have." 

Perry S. Heath, Chicago: "Your Letter of Acceptance is regarded upon 
«very hand here as the most complete answer to free coinage arguments ever 
made and your reference to tariff, reciprocity and patriotic subjects generally 
will stir every true American heart and win ua more votes than anything I 
have seen orheard." 

Hon. William M. Hahn, Mansfield, Ohio, from Chicago; "Your admirable 
Letter is a manly, straightforward presentation of the issues of the campaign. 
It is universally approved here. It will make our work much easier." 

H . S. Clark, Secretary, Shelby ville, Indiana : "The McKinley Club, organ- 
ized last February, congratulate you on your Letter of Acceptance and predict 
that it will make you many votes. It is able and convincing." 

C. N. Price, President, and J. C. Clemons, Secretary, Cedar Rapids, Iowa: 
"We, the largest McKinley and Sound Money Traveling Men's Club in 
Eastern Iowa, send greetings and congratulations on your Letterof Acceptance. 
We are glad that we have a leader who depends on facts for his arguments 
instead of his imagination. We realize that only your election will restore 
confidence and business in this country." 

Hon. Charles E. Hard, Chairman Scioto County Republican Committee, 
Portsmouth, Ohio: "The two McKinley Clubs of Clay Township, the Garfield 
Club and the new McKinley Club of Portsmouth, with a united membership of 
2,500, in mass meeting assembled, congratulate you on the wisdom of your 
Letter of Acceptance this day given to the people and pledge you the largest 
vote ever given in Scioto County to any candidate." 

Hon. Albert M. Lea, Chairman Republican State Committee, Vicksburg, 
Mississippi: "Your patriotic Letter is worthy the Old Party and its great 
leader." , 

Charles S. Rannels, Chairman Republican State Executive Committee, 
Chicago: "I congratulate you and the Republican Party of the Nation on your 
grand Letter of Acceptance. It is a patriotic document and will survive the 
present contest." 

A. M. Higgins, President Indiana Republican State League, Terre Haute: 
"Your magnificent Letter makes success in Indiana doubly sure." 

M. G. McLain, Prerident, Petosky, Michigan: "The Columbia Club con- 
gratulates you on your magnificent Letter. 

130 



Charles P. Hitcli, Chairman Illinois Republican State Central Committee, 
Chicago: "Eepublicans and in fact all true patriots in Illinois are deeply 
impressed with your Letter of Acceptance which settles the present contest in 
favor of Protection, Reciprocity and Sound Money," 

J. R. B. Van Cleave, Secretary, Chicago: "Accept the congratulations of 
our^epublican State Central Committee. Your magnificent Letter of Ac- 
ceptance will make our fight much easier in Illinois and it pleases all classes." 

Frank McLaughlin, President McKinley Club, and M. R. Higgins, Secretary, 
San Francisco, California: "Personally we felt greatly elated overyear Letter 
of Acceptance, but waited to give you the effect on the general public before 
wiring you. It is universally considered the strongest document of the cam- 
paign. We will publish it in every Republican newspaper in California and 
^end out 100,000 in document form. We heartily congratulate you and the 
party." 

Capt. Dennis Eagan, Chairman Republican State Executive Committee, 
Jacksonville, Florida: "Accept congratulations on your Letter of Acceptance. 
It is concise and convincing." 

Samuel J. Roberts, Chairman Republican State Committee, Lexington, 
Kentucky: "Your beautiful recognition of the obliteration of sectional lines 
struck a responsive chox-d in the South. The Letter was perfect." 

Hon. George W. Post, Chairman of the Republican State Committee, Lin- 
coln, Nebraska: "Please accept my hearty congratulations on your splendid 
Letter of Acceptance. The country expected a great letter from you; you 
have more than met the expectations." 

Clarence W. Bowen, Putnam, Connecticut: "The people of Woodstock, 
•Connecticut, in mass meeting assembled, thank you for your Letter of Accept- 
ance. On motion of our Congressman, Hon. Charles A. Russell, we have 
resolved to work from now until November for the maintenance of the National 
honor and the election of McKinley and Hobart." 

Hon. James E. Babb, Chairman, Boise City, Idaho: "The Kepublicans of 
Idaho, in State Convention assembled, congratulate you upon the clear and 
patriotic expressions of Republicanism expressed in your Letter of Acceptance 
and pledge their best endeavors for your success. We have nominated a full 
Republican State ticket by the largest and most enthusiastic convention ever 
held in Idaho." 

Dr. John Grant, Chairman of the Republican State Committee, Sherman, 
Texas: "Your Letter is the specific for the malady. It breathes conviction to 
the undecided, gives hope to the distressed, and enlightens the uninformed. It 
refutes monetary vagaries and is the banner around which the American people 
will raUy in November and bear you to the position of supreme command." 

Alexander R. Smith, Secretary American Merchant Marine Association, 
New York: "You have. placed American shipping interests under lasting 
obligations by your hearty and vigorous endorsement of protection to Amer- 
ican ships in the foreign trade by the policy of discriminating duties. The 
lofty sentiments, the ringing utterances and the patriotic Americanism of 
your Letter of Acceptance, lays the Nation under a debt which I hope it will 
partially repay on November third by giving you the largest electoral vote 
«ver given any candidate for President " 

131 



E. Piatt Stnitton, ^'e\Y York : "Kindly accept my congratulations on youi 
Buperb Letter of Acceptance, especially for your forcible commendation of the 
vigorous support of our Merchant Marine until our prestige and supremacy 
is attained." 

William Penn Nixon, Editor of the Inter-Ocean, Chicago : "Please accept 
congratulations on your Letter of Acceptance. It is tlie ablest, fairest, most 
complete and most convincing document that this long political agitation haa 
developed. If the campaign can be kept along the lines laid dawn therein 
the Mississippi Valley will be as certain and sure as New York." 

Frank McPhillips, Editor of the Tribune, Bay City, Michigan : "Your I^et- 
ter shatters every argument of the Popocrats." 

R. C. Alexander, Editor of the Mail and Express, Ne^v York: "Congratu- 
lations on your magnificent Letter of Acceptance. It is clear, able, convincing, 
inspiring. It will strengthen our cause and give us the victory." 

Charles Emory Smith, Editor of the Philadelphia Press, from Presque Isle, 
■^laine: "From Maine's northern border, let me congratulate you on your 
^eat Letter. It is both an inspiration and a text book." 

L. Clarke Davis, Editor of the Public Ledger, Philadelphia: 'Y^our Letter 
of Acceptance is certain to become a powerful influence for intelligent, con- 
scientious voting. The financial issue has never before been presented in form 
so direct, clear, simple and convincing to those to whom it is so desirable, es- 
sential even, the,truth shall be made manifest. As a citizen and Republican, I 
thank you for its presentation." 

H. H. Kohlsaat, Chicago, Illinois: "Your Letter is praised by everybody. 
It has had a marked effect on the business of the day You have scored a hit." 

Hon. James A. Gary, ex-Governor, Baltimore, Maryland: "Your Letter 
should find grateful response in the heart of every true American." 

P. E. Studebaker, South Bend, Indiana: "I congratulate you on the sim- 
plicity and unbounded common sense of your Letter of Acceptance." 

Hon. Asa S. Bushnell, Governor of Ohio, Columbus: "Permit me to offer 
my hearty congratulations upon your magnificent Letter of Acceptance." 

Hon. A. R. McGill, ex-Governor, St. Paul, Minnesota: That was a most 
magnificent message you sent to the people of the United States yesterday. 
It stated the issues forcibly and with the utmost clearness and ability. Noth- 
ing can be uttered during the campaign to excel it. Accept my heartiest 
congi'atulations. While you give first place to the money question, your 
ai'gument for adequate protective legislation shows clearly enough that a 
protective tariff is after all, the real, vital issue of this campaign. If the tariff 
of 1890 had not been repealed, the money question would not now be bothering 
us. As you say, it is not so much a question of 'opening the mints as opening 
the mills.' The good sense of the American people will say ' amen' to that 
proposition." 

Col. James E. Boyd, Greensboro, North Carolina: "I have just read your 
Letter of Acceptance. You make a most superb presentation of the questions 
before the country and of the Republican position with reference to them. 
The Letter is a gem and the National Committee should see that it is placed ia 
the hands of every voter in the Nation." 

132 



Hon. D. Eussell Brown, ex-Governor, Providence, Rhode Island: "Your 
ietter is just what our people expected. It fills the bill, being a clear 
statement of facts that will enlighten the public generally." 

Hon. Louis Seasongood, of Cincinnati, from Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mas- 
3achusetts: "I can not forego to express to you my great gratification and 
pleasure on reading your grand Letter of Acceptance. It is so true and con- 
vincing, its logic so strong, incisive, irresistible, tliat I am sure it will prove the 
keynote to a grand and certain victory. All who have read it, and tliat is every- 
body, pronounce a similar judgment, and even our political opponents concede 
it as the strongest and ablest Letter of the kind ever written. It leaves noth- 
ing unsaid and says everything so tliorouglily and timely that I am sure its 
effect is bound to be for good." 

Hon. George H. Proctor, New York: "Your Letter is like food to the 
starving Nation." 

Col. Arthur L. Conger, Akron, Ohio: "Congratulations on your splendid 
Letter. Every shot hits the bull's eye. It will insui-e your triumphant elec- 
tion." 

Ferdinand W . Peck, Chicago: "Your Letter of Acceptance is a wonderful 
document and will, in my judgment, exert a more valuable and potent influ- 
ence in this campaign than all the previous writings and utterances upon the 
great issues." 

J. G. Butler, Jr., of Youngstown, Ohio, from New York: "Your Letter 
meets with full and cordial approval here. It is a vote winner sure, and is 
fully appreciated." 

Hon. E. W. Poe, Columbus, Ohio: "Your Letter has the right ring. It is 
-imply superb. I congratulate you as the*next President Then good times will 
me." 

Hon. William G. Elliott, ex-Mayor, "Williamsport, Pennsylvania: "With 
lUch pleasure and gratification I have read your Letter of Acceptance. I feel 
your election is assured. Our principles ai'e too solid to be defeated." 

J. D. Archibald, New York : "Permit me to congratulate you on your most 
admirable Letter of Acceptance. It will take high rank among the great 
patriotic utterances in our National history." 

Col. William Edwards, Cleveland, Ohio : "Your Letter of Acceptance could 
not have been better. It must give confidence to the people and our business 
interests. Your position can not be misunderstood." 

Hon. James H. Hoyt, Cleveland, Ohio: "Your Letter is a notable and 
magnificent achievement. I send you my heartiest congi-atulations because of 
it. It will make thousands of votes for the Republican Party." 

Hon. William Lawi'ence, Clark's, Nebraska: "Accept my sincere congrat- 
lations upon your Letter. It will carry Nebraska sure." 

Hon. W. B. Plunkett, North Adams, Massachusetts: "Your Letter is a 
complete fulfillment of our predictions. Hearty congratulations." 

Thomas McDougall, Cincinnati, Ohio : "It is great, clear and unanswerable. 
It will be the historic Letter. Many of its phrases will become proverbs. 
Hearty congratulations." 

133 



Hon. Samuel W. Allerton, Chicago : "Your Letter of Acceptance should 
be printed in every language, distributed in every man's home, and in every 
mining camp." 

Judge A. W. Tenney, Brooklyn, New York: "Accept aiy heartiest con- 
gratulations upon your Letter of Acceptance. It is sound to the core," 

Curtis Guild, Jr., Boston, Massachusetts: "A magnificent example of 
clearness, common sense and courage. Every American is. proud of you." 

E. A. Hartshorn, Troy, New York: "God bless you f Your admirable 
Letter of Acceptance has left little for the rest of us to do but to vote for 
you." 

Hon. Louis Altheimer, Pine Bluff, Arkansas : "Accept my sincere congrat- 
ulations upon your great Letter of Acceptance." 

Col. John N. Taylor, East Liverpool, Ohio, from Chicago: "Your Letter is 
considered the greatest document of the kind ever issued." 

Hon. John K. Richards, ex-Attorney General, of L-onton, Ohio, from Dux- 
bury, Massachusetts : "Your Letter of Acceptance is admirable and it will be- 
come historic. As always, you say precisely the right thing in the very best 
way." 

Hon. Joseph S. Spear, Jr., San Francisco, California: "Your Letter of 
Acceptance has converted thousands of Democrats in California." 

Hon. Sidney D. Maxwell, Cincinnati, Ohio: " I congratulated you on your 
nomination and I now as heartily congratulate you on your Letter of Accept- 
ance, which is as able and forceful as felicitous. I am glad that the gravity of 
the silver question did not prevent you from courageously arraigning the tariff 
legislation of the Democratic Party as the real cause of our misfortunes, nor 
from pointing to tariff adjustment as the remedy for the evils that now afflict 
us. No people ever threw away a greater opportunity than the American people 
did in 1892 and I can not believe for a moment that we are to commit gi-eatei* 
folly in 1896. President Lincoln was right when he said : 'All the people could 
not be fooled all the time.' '* 

Hon. John R. Lynch, Washington, D. C. : "Your Letter of Acceptance is a 
strong, able document. I can not see how any Rei^ublican or patriotic citizen 
can do otherwise than vote for you. You have stated the issues in a way that 
all can easily understand them. There is no room for doubt or conjecture. I 
tender you my sincere and hearty congratulations." 

General Schuyler Hamilton, Richfield Springs, New York: "As an 
old comrade, a staunch Republican, and sincere friend, I congratulate 
you upon your Letter of Acceptance as the standard bearer of the 
Republican Party. It is a state paper worthy the days of the fathers. 
'Open mills, not open mints,' will set the wheels of prosperity in 
motion and protection will insure the continuance of the motion." 

Hon. Blanche K. Bruce, Washington, D. C: "I have read with intense 
pleasure and interest your Letter of Acceptance. It is a clear, frank and strong 
exposition of Republican principles and an admirable production from every 
point of view. It puts you, if possible, in closer touch than ever with the 
great popular heart. It will command public confidence, inspire popular 
enthusiasm and bring a glorious victory in November. It is a masterly pro- 
duct of a master mind, of which every American may justly be proud." 

Major Elijah P. Halford, Washington, D. C: "Heartiest congratulations 
upon your splendid Letter." 

134 



Dr. C. K. Adams, President of the University of Wisconsin, Madison: '*> 
beg to add my very high appreciation of the admirable character of your Letter 
of Acceptance. • It seems to me nothing could have been more forcible or 
convincing than your presentation of the issues of the day." 

Rev. H. C. C. Astwood, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: "I make haste to con- 
gratulate you upon the greatest deliverance from any Presidential nominee. 
It is a great Letter from every conceivable standpoint, sound from beginning 
to end. It covers the ground upon the tariff and the finances so completely 
that 'he who runs may read.' Not another word need be said to convince the 
most skeptical. I can only add 'God bless you, and may the Nation be favored 
with you as the People's choice for President ! " 

Hon. Aaron A. Ferris, Cincinnati, Ohio: "Accept congratulations on your 
Letter of Acceptance. It is an admirable, masterly paper and will win. It 
should be put in the hands of every voter. 

Judge George M. Thomas, Vanceburg, Kentucky: "Have just fnished 
'•eading your Letter of Acceptance. You meet the issues squarely and the 
statement of your position will give general satisfaction to all frien' 3 of ^ood 
government." 

[Ion. M. B. Madden, Chicago, Illinois: "The forcible, able and intelli- 
gent manner in which you have stated the issues of the day in your Letter of 
Acceptance is a great source of gratification to your friends in this section of 
the country and to Republicans generally." 

Judge Philip H. Kumler, Cincinnati, Ohio: "Your splendid Letter o? 
Acceptance demonstrates the wisdom of the St. Louis Convention. A tho-isand 
congi'atulations." 

Prof. W. S. Scarborough, Wilberforce, Ohio: "I have read your able 
Letter of Acceptance and wish to congi-atulate you upon its excellence. It is 
the ablest and most complete document of the kind that has yet appeared ia 
this country so far as my knowledge goes." 

Hon. Wallace McCamant, Portland, Oregon: "lean not refrain from 
expressing the pleasure and satisfaction with which I have read your Letter of 
Acceptance published in this morning's papers. Its statements are clear, its 
language epigramatical and its logic absolutely unanswerable. No better cam 
paign document can be used." 

Hon, John A. Shauck, Supreme Judge, Columbus^ Ohio: "A second read 
ing of your Letter of Acceptance strengthens the opinions created by the first. 
It is excellent." 

Isaac D. McCutcheon, Seattle, Washington: "I beg to congratulate you 
on the manly utterances and irrefutable arguments contained in your Letter 
of Acceptance. Every sentence is a text from which the gospel of honest 
money and protection to American industries can be preached by those who 
go forth in this campaign to battle for Republican success, which means the 
maintenance and continued upbuilding of just, pure, and upright govern- 
ment. You have stripped every question of sophistry and stated the case so 
plainly that 'he who runs may read,' and not only read but understand. Again 
Icongratulate you." 

William Durham, Hot Springs, Arkansas: "Comrade McKinley, jour 
Letter of Acceptance forever settles the danger of American free soup honp# 
rjfS English free trade banquets." 

i3.^ 



James Ford Rhodes, Cambridge, Massachusetts: "Nothing could be bet- 
ter than the expressions in your Letter touching the financial question, the 
restriction of immigration, civil service reform, the maintenance of lawr and 
order, and the obliteration of sectionalism. Your certain opinions and posi- 
tive utterances, together with the literary form, make it a remarkable docu- 
fient, for which you deserve rich congratulation." 

Matthew Dougherty, Ogallala, Nebi-aska: "Congratulations. Your Letter 
jb solid shot. It lifts the real crown of thorns from the brow of labor and 
irucifies the demagogue. Nebraska will be in line." 

J. S. Lambert, Liberty, Indiana: "Your Letter is the shibboleth of honesty. 
Indiana is now safe and sure." 

Dr. G. W. Arbuckle, Cleveland, Ohio: "Congratulations on your very able 
Letter." 

Judge George M. Tuttle, Warren, Ohio: "The whole country thanks you 
for your »vorthy Letter on a worthy occasion." 

Webb C. Hayes, Cleveland, Ohio: "Warmest congratulations on youy 
Letter of A. ^eptance." 

W. A. Mo re, Minneapolis, Minnesota: "Your very able Letter of Accept- 
ance will rank nth the most important documents ever issued in American 
history." 

Channing F. Meek, New York: "Your Letter is the strongest and best 
exposition of the money question yet presented. It will bring you votes from 
every quarter." 

A, S. Huntington, East Liberty, Pennsylyania: "Congratulations. Your 
Letter is full of common sense and facts. It suits the people and the occasion. 
It will be read to-day by more persons and with greater satisfaction than any 
document ever before printed." 

J. C. Painter, Cleveland, Ohio: "A Letter that all your friends are 
proud of. The road is cleared." 

William Heaton, New York: "Hearty congratulations on your patriotic, 
able and convincing Letter." 

H. E. Tiepke, Mayor, Pawtucket, Ehode Island: "Your magnificent and 
convincing exposition of Republican principles is a production which is 
worthy the admiration and support of every thoughtful American." 

H. S. Deshon, New York: "Please accept my congratulations for your 
superb Letter of Acceptance. I am without words to express my admiration 
of it." 

Edwin S. Conway, Chicago, Illinois: "Your Letter of Acceptance 
will be most heartily appreciated by all true American citizens. It is logical, 
patriotic and convincing. The tariff is the real issue. The silver craze would 
not have been a possibility had not the tariff been tinkered with." 

A. Warfield Monroe, Baltimore, Maryland: "Your Letter of Acceptance 
is very favorably received here. It is clear, strong and patriotic on all points. 
Your epigram 'government by law must be first assured ; everything else can 
wait,' — will become historic." 

Juflg James A. Waymire, San Francisco, California: "Your Letter is 
excellent. It will carry the Pacific States sure." 

136 



GREETINGS FROM CLUBS. 



ALABAMA. 



A Fine Club at Fruithurst. 

FnuiTHURST. Alabama, August 28, 1896. 
A McKinley and Hobart Club of one hundred and five members was organ- 
ized here last night. We will have two hundred. 

L. D. Phillips, President. 



ARKANSAS. 

A Non-Partisan fleeting. 

Little Rock, Arkansas, August 25, 1896. 
The Non-partisan Sound Money Club, of Arkansas, four hundred strong, 
Bends greetings. We confidently expect to be ten times stronger by November, 
and pledge you our cordial support for an honest dollar and the opportunity to 
earn the same. W. G. Dills, Secretary. 



CALIFORNIA. 

The Club at Santa Clara. 

Santa Clara, California, August 3, 1898, 
Our McKinley Club, 100 strong, has organized for McKinley and Hobart, 
Protection and Sound Money. D. Henderson, Treasurer. 

Greetings from San Jose. 

San Jose, California, August 6, 1896. 
To the next President of the United States : The Santa Clara County Repub- 
lican League sends greetings and assurances of a rousing majority for McKinley, 
Protection and Sound Money. D. F. McGraw, President. 

A. G. Bennett, Secretary. 

The Opening at Oakland. 

Oakland, California, August 9, 1896. 
The Republican Alliance formally opened the campaign last night. Great 
enthusiasm. Engaged largest hall in town, yet hundreds were turned away. 
This State is yours. George P. Morrow, President. 

No Doubt About California. 

Red Bluff, California, August 10, 1896. 
Our IVIcKinley and Hobart Club, 250 strong, sends greetings to the 
champion of their cause, protection to American labor and honest money 
and assure him that the cause daily grows stronger. No doubt about California. 
Such enthusiasm for a Presidential candidate was never before manifested. 

F. H. Albright, President. 
George H. Delashmutt, Secretary. 

137 



Ventura County Ready for the Campaign. 

Santa Paula, California, August 11, 1896. 
The McKinley Club of this place, 300 strong, sends greetings and assurances 
of hearty support. L- F. Webster, Tresident. 

Edward M. Silby, Secretary. 

The Club at Santa Rosa. 

Santa Rosa, California, August 20, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club, 500 strong, sends greetings and pledges you its heai-ty 
Bupport. Albert G. Burnett, Tresident. 

Carl H. Neilson, Secretary. 

The First Ward Club of Los Angeles. 

Los Angeles, California, August 21, 1896. 
The First Ward McKinley Club organized last night, 1,000 strong. It is 
solid for Protection, Prosperity and Honest Money. We send words of good 
cheer. R. A. Ling, President, 

D. C. McGarvin, Secretary. 



CONNECTICUT. 

McKinley Recruits at Meriden. 

Meriden, Connecticut, August 13, 1896, 
At a rally to-night the announcement was made that in the last forty-eight 
hours over 700 voters, including many former Democrats, had joined the 
McKinley Club. ^ Henry Dryhurst, Chairmati. 



THE DISTRICT OF COLUHBIA. 

Can Work if Not Vote. 

Washington, D. C, August 27, 1896. 
A McKinley and Hobart Sound Money and Protective Tariff Club was 
organized here to-night. Whilst denied the right of suffrage it is our intention 

to do all in our power to insure your election. 

Charles B. Purvis, President. 
James H. Smith, Secretary. 



FLORIDA. 

The First For Years. 

St. Augustine, Florida, August 14, 1896. 
A Republican McKinley and Hobart Club was organized here last night. 
We will elect the first Republican county ticket in twenty years. 

Henby Maecette, Tresident. 

The St. John's County Club. 

St. Augustine, Florida, August 27, 1896. 
St. John's County Republican Club, organized with 100 members, sends 
meetings and assurances of support. Louis Labson, Secretary, 

138 



IDAHO. 

An Excellent flotto. 

Moscow, Idaho, August 3, 1896. 
Our Moscow McKinley Clubs, Scandinavian and American, two hundred 
and sixty-three strong, send greetings to our next President, from the so called 
Banner Silver State of the Northwest. Our slogan is Protection, Patriotism 
and Prosperity. W. W. Watkix.s, Secretary. 

Boise City Sends Greeting. 

Boise City, Idaho, August 14, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club organized to-night with a membership of 425 and sends 
hearty congratulations. They are all true blue. 

George II. Stewart, President. 

Patriotism Not Declining. 

Lewiston, Idaho, August 24, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Hobart Club, 200 strong, sends greetings. The total 
vote of the precinct in 1894 was 393. Patriotism has not all fallen into a silver 
mine. John L. Chapman, Secretary, 



ILLINOIS. 

The Nation's Defenders at Springfield. 

Sprixgfield, Illinois, August 6, 1896. 
The Nation's Defenders, 1,500 strong, send greetings and pledge their sup 
port to you, the next President of the United States. 

Charles Fetzer, Tresident. 

Lincoln's Home County. 

Highland, Illinois, August 9, 1896. 
Our Loami (Sangamon County) McKinlej Club organized to-night, with a 
membership of 130, all voters. We send greetings to the next President and 
assure him that the Capital County of Illinois is perfectly organized for pro- 
tection and victory at the polls in November. G. W. Baker, Secretary. 

The Club at Highland. 

Highland, Illinois, August 9, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club organized to-night. There was great enthusiasm and 
300 members signed the rolls. "We send greetings and pledges to labor for pro- 
tection, prosperity and sound money, and for you, the next President of the 
United States. Louis E. Kinney, President. 

J. P.'Struber, Secretary. 

Fulton Coun.y Actively Engaged. 

Canton, Illinois, August 15, 1896. 
The ex-soldiers, traveling men, plow factory men, cigar-makers, and the 
majority of the other citizens of< this place, organized in a McKinley and 
Tanner Club, send greetings and pledge their energetic support in the campaign 
for the preservation and advancement of American institutions and American 
interests. By direction of the Club. C. E. Snively, Secretary. 

139 



Another Greeting. 

Canton, Illinois, August 16, 1896. 
Canton, Illinois, Bends greeting to Canton, Ohio. We have organized a 
McKinley and Tanner Club of 450, composed of cigar makers, traveling men, 
Pr lin & Orrendorf Plow Manufacturers' men, old soldiers, business men and 
laborers. W. H. Shaw, Trestdent. 

The Club at Carterville. 

Cartervillb, Illinois, August 17, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club, 800 strong, organized to-night, sends greetings. 

J. M. Lauer, President. 

The Club at Lacon. 

Lacox, Illinois, August 18, 1896. 
The McKinley and Tanner Club, with 180 members, sends greetings and 
pledges of support. R. B. Fort, Secretarj> 

The Rock Island Railway Club. 

Chicago, Illinois, August 21, 1896. 
The 150 Rock Island Railway clerks in Chicago to-day organized a battalion 
of the National Wheelmen's McKinley and Hobart Club, for protection, reci- 
procity, sound money and the National honor. 

W. A. PuRDY, Major Commanding. 

Past the Six Hundred Mark. 

MuRPiiYSBORO, Illinois, August 21, 1896. 

At our regidar meeting last night the McKinley and Hobart Club passed 

the 600 mark. We send gi-eetings with assurances ot victory in November. 

Charles L. Rxtter, President. 
* 

Saline County in Line. 

Harrisburg, Illinois, August 25, 1896. 
Saline County sends greetings. We organized our thirteenth McKinley 
and Tanner Club last evening. We now have a membership in this county of 
1,750 and we are not done yet. The silver craze is losing every day. Many 
honest Democrats have declared for McKinley and sound money. 

W. I. Reynolds, Chairman, 
P. N. Pearce, Secretary. 

Rock Island All Right. 

Rock Island, Illinois, August 25, 1896. 
The Rock Island Lincoln Club, 1,200 strong, sends greetings and assurances 
that Rock Island, in coriimon with the whole State of Illinois, is all right for 
protection, reciprocity and honest money. C. J. Searle, ^President. 

John Rinck, Secretary. 

A Tazewell County Tanner Club. 

New Btrnside, Illinois, August 25, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Tanner Club, organized last night, 130 strong, sends 
greetings. W. R. Morris, Secretary. 

Winnebago County vVide Awake, 

RocKFOED, Illinois, August 25, 1896. 
We have organized a McKinley Club, 1.000 strong. We tender you con- 
gratulations on the splendid prospect of a rousing Republican victory. 

Thomas G. Sawyer, Tresident. 
140 



Bond County Pledges Its Support. 

Greenville, Illinois, August 26, 1896. 
Our Republican Club, 300 strong, just organized, sends greetings anc' 
pledges its support for McKinley and Hobart, protection and sound money. 

H. B. Heninger, Tresident. 
John L. Burch, Secretary. 

Down in Egypt. 

Sparta, Illinois, August 26, 1896. 
One of the largest McKinley Clubs in Southern Illinois was organized here 
to-night with a membership of nearly 600, E. I. Smith, Secretarjy. 

The Hebrews of Rock Island. 

Rock Island, Illinois, August 26, 1896. 
The Hebrews of Rock Island have organized a Republican Club and its 
60 members desire to extend greetings to the chief exponent of protection 
and honest money, essential requisites for the prosperity of our country. 

8. Lewis, President. 
H. Morris, Secretarj>. 

Mt. Carmel's flcKinley Club. 

Mt. Carmel, Illinois, August 27, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Tanner Club organized to-night with an initiative mem- 
bership of over 300, sends its compliments to the next President of the United 
States. Robert Belcham, Tresident. 

Centralia's McKinley flarching Club, 

Centralia, Illinois, August 27, 1896. 
The McKinley and Hobart Marching Club, of Centralia, Illinois, Candidate 
Bryan's native county, 500 legal voters strong, and the Illinois Central Railway 
Sound Money Club, 200 strong, send greetings to our gallant leader. All have 
their coats off working for protection, sound money and the success of the 
whole Republican ticket. A. T. Hill, Secretary 

Macoupin County for flcKinley. 

Girard, Illinois, August 27, 1896. 
The Republicans of Girard send greetings. A McKinley and Tanner Club 
was organized here this evening with a inembership of 200. 

R. H. McKnight, Secretary. 

The Kelly Axe Company of Alexandria. 

Alexandria, Illinois, August 28, 1896. 
The employes of the Kelly Axe Company organized a McKinley Club last 
night. "We pledge our best efforts for your election. 

John Frikert, President. 

riany Honest Honey Democrats for flcKinley. 

NoKOMis, Illinois, August 29, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club, 300 strong, greets you as the next President and the 
A-dvance Agent of Prosperity. Many honest money Democrats are with us. 

E. J. Kerr, President. 

141 



Railroad Men at Galesburg. 

Galesburg, Illinois, August 29, 1898. 
The Railroad Men's McKinley Club, employes of the Chicago, Burlington 
and Quincy Railroad, ^500 strong, for sound money and protection, sends you 
its greetings. W. I. Phillips, Secretary. 

On the Boom. 

Astoria, Illinois, August 31, 1898. 
A IVIcKinley and Hobart Club was organized here to-night with 160mem- 
bers. Republicanism is on the boom. E. J. Murphy, Secretary. 

The Early Home of Logan. 

Benton, Illinois, August 31, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club, of Benton, the early home of Logan, 200 strong, sends 
greetings, and pledges its unwavering support. 

H. R. Jackson, Secretary. 

West Chicago's Club. 

Turner, Illinois, August 31, 1896. 
To-night we organized a Sound Money Republican Club of West Chicago, 
with 300 members. J, H. Creager, Secretary. 

Making it Unanimous. 

Vandalia, Illinois, August 31, 1898. 
We organized a McKinley Club last night, 400 strong, in a precinct of 400 
Republican voters and have 92 more ready to join 

George C. Turner, Secretary. 



INDIANA. 

The Erie Railway flen at Huntington. 

Huntington, Indiana, August 1, 1896. 
The employes of the Erie Railway, organized to-night an Erie Railway 
McKinley Club, with 305 members, many of whom were former Democrats, and 
pledge you their time and support. Edward Humbert, Secretary. 

Workingmen of Dunkirk. 

Dunkirk, Indiana, August 6, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club organized to-night, with 400 members, two-thirds of 
whom are workingmen in factories here. Enthusiasm great. This township 
is good for 500 Republican majority. T. H. Johnson, President. 

The Railroad flen of Logansport. 

LoGANSPOET, Indiana, August 17, 1896. 
The railroad men of this city have just organized a Sound Money Club, 300 
strong. Many of them were formerly Democrats. We wish you success. 

E. F. Kramer, Vresident. 
A. F. Hockenberger, Secretary. 

The Railroad flen of Fort Wayne. 

Ft. Wayne, Indiana, August 19, 1896. 
The Railroad Men's McKinley Club organized to-night. We are already 
300 strong. C. d. l^^^ President 

142 



The Gas Belt All Right. 

Anderson, Indiana, August 20, 1896. 
A McKinley Club was organized to-night, with 1,375 members. The ''Gas 
Belt" is for you» A- F. Dye, President. 

The Club at Greensburg. 

Greensburg, Indiana, August 20, 1896 
Our Republicans organized a McKinley Club to-night. We have already 
605 members. Edward Dille, President. 

New Albany Wide Awake. 

New Albany, Indiana, August 20, 1896. 
Dm* McKinley Club just organized, 1,100 strong. It sends greetings. 

George Roberts, President. 

First Voters of Peru. 

Peru, Indiana, August 20, 1896. 
The First Voters' Escort Club of McKinley supporters was organized here 
to-night, 100 strong. Henry Bears, Captain. 

Three Active Clubs at New Albany. 

New Albany, Indiana, August 21, 1896. 
Three McKinley Clubs have just been organized here : East End, 400 strong, 
Albert Manner, President, William McClure, Secretary ; West End, 300 strong, 
Fred. D. Connor, President, E. L. Holman, Secretary; Central, 300 strong, 
C. D. Knoefel, President, E. H. Manner, Secretary. 

Fred. D. Connor, President 

Madison County Astir. 

Alexandria, Indiana, August 21, 1896. 
The Monroe Township McKinley Club organized here to-night with 602 
members. It wiU be increased to 1,000. Congratulations. 

M. L. Clawson, President. 
J. E. Thomas, Secretarj>. 

Wabash Coi^nty Organizes. 

North Manchester, Indiana, August 27, 1896 
The Chester Township McKinley Club of 300 enthusiastic Hoosiers organ- 
ized last night and sends cordial greeting. George R. Craft, President. 

Support from Leesburg. 

Leesburg, Indiana, August 27, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club of 105 members, organized last night, sends you greet- 
ings and assurances of support. W. C. Fries, Secretary. 

First Voters at Muncie. 

MuNciE, Indiana, August 27, 1896. 
Our First Voters' McKinley Club, organized to-night, 250 strong, sends 
greetings. Command us for the campaign. 

Robert Williamson, President 

Captain Gowdy's Home. 

Rushtille, Indiana, August 29, 1896. 
The McKinley Club, 900 strong, Jack Gowdy's home, sends greetings. 

J. W. Hanson, Secretary 

143 



Clay County's Active Clubs. 

Brazil, Indiana, August 21, 1896. 
We had rousing meetings of our McKinley Clubs to-night whose member- 
ship is now ovei- 700 as follows; Iron and Steel Workers' Club, 560 ; Old Sold- 
iers' Club, 100 ; First Voters' Club, 75— total 735. 

E. M. MuNCiE, Trestdent. 

Five Hundred Stong at Sheridan. 

Sheridan, Indiana, August 29, 1896. 
Sheridan organized a McKinley Club last night with 500 members. It 
sends greetings. M. K. Go^vgiIjI., Secretary. 

First Voters at Spencer. 

Spencer, Indiana, August 31, 1896. 
Greetings from the Republican First Voters' Club, just organized ,450 strong 
in a town of 2,000. They are aU McKinley and sound money men. 

Cyrus D. Mead, Tresident. 
Carl Anderson, Secretary. 

The Young Men of Floyd County. 

New Albany, Indiana, August 31, 1896. 
Greetings from the Young Men's Republican Club, just organized, 200 
strong. John W. Thompson, Secretary. 

A Lively Club at Lapel. 

Lapel, Indiana, August 31, 1896. 
The Lapel McKinley Club, of 225 members, organized to-night, sends 
greetings. * J. O. Lee, Tresident. 

J. T. McNally, Secretary. 

IOWA. 

The Club at Creston. 

Creston, Iowa, August 25, 1896. 
The Scandinavian Republican Club, just organized, with 125 members, sends 
greetings to the next President of the United States. In this sentiment the 
other two Republican Clubs of this city of 10,000 heartily join. 

Axel Nelson, Secretary. 

KANSAS. 

Reporting For Duty. 

Burlingame, Kansas, August 22,- 1896. 
Ninety old veterans organized here to-day the Old Soldiers' McKinley 
Club, and send greetings to their standard bearer. Major McKinley. Having 
enlisted in the cause of Protection and Sound Money, we hereby report for 
duty. John O. Davis, Captain. 

James H. Burke, Adjutant. 

Russell County Organizes. 

Russell, Kansas, August 25, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Hobart Club has just been organized, 220 strong. . 
We send greetings. H. M. Sorg, President. 

144 



Pawnee County at Work. 

Lakxed, Kansas, August 25, 1896. 
The Republicans of Pawnee County have organized a McKinley Club 
with 253 members. It sends greetings. F- J. Davis, Secretary., 

The Herald of Prosperity'/ 

A\'iciriTA, Kansas, August 25, 1896. 
The Traveling Men of Kansas organized a strong McKinley Club here 
to-night, and adjourned with three rousing cheers for i^rotection and the 
herald of prosperity. We do not believe in repudiation, populism or anarchy. 

E. E. Beach, President. 

In the riidst of Populists. 

Harper, Kansas, August 25, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club organized last night with 150 members, in the midst of 
Populists. It sends greetings. George Melvin, Secretary. 

An Historic City. 

Osawatomie, Kansas, August 26, 1896. 
The sound money voters of this historic city, 180 strong, organized as a 
Railway Employes' Club last night. They send greetings and pledge you 
their hearty support. 0. S. Bixly, Tresident, 

J. II. Brown, Secretary. 

The Great Inter=State Soldiers' Reunion. 

Baxter Springs, Kansas, August 26, 1896. 
The greatest Inter-State Reunion of old soldiers ever held in the West ia 
now encjlmped at this tlie historic field of the Baxter Springs massacre of 
1863. On the first roll call of States to-day, amid much enthusiasm, you re- 
ceived the vote of every man of the thousands here save twenty-tiiree, and not 
a dissenting voice from a member of the Sons of Veterans. 

Lewis Hanback, Secretary. 



KENTUCKY. 

No Free Silver for Newport. 

Newport, Kentucky, August 19, 1896. 
Erom Kentucky hilltops and highlands McKinley Clubs send gi-eetings as 
an augury of success. No free silver in ours. D. A. Brecon, Presid^vt, 

W. H. Stone, Secretary. 

The Hebrews of Louisville. 

Louisville, Kentucky, August 25, 1896. 
Best congratulations of our Hebi-ew Independent Political Club. Sound 
Money is our watchword and Protection our passport. As both these princi- 
ples are embodied in you, we are for you, 500 strong, and more coming. 

S. Ranzal, President. 
Louis Hyman, Secretary. 

The Colored Club at Fulton. 

Fulton, Kentucky, August 29, 1896. 
We, the Colored McKinley Club, organized last night fof McKinley, sound 
money and protection, pledge you our hearty support in November. 

Z. Harrison, President. 
145 



LOUISIANA. 

The Alliance Sends Greetings. 

New Orleans, Lol'isiaxa, August 18, 1896. 
At a meeting of the McKinley Alliance to-day we reaffirmed our alle- 
giance and beg to send you greetings. Joseph E. Porter, President, 

C. H. Thompson, Secretaiy. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 
Republican by a Large flajority. 

WiLLIAMSTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, AugUSt 27, 1896. 

The Williamstown Republican Campaign Club was organized last night 
with 100 members. We will liave 300 within a month and Williamstown can be 
counted on to give McKinley and Hobart a large majority. Cong.iatulations. 

Henry Sabin, President. 
Damon E. Hall, Secretary. 



MICHIGAN. 

First Voters in Ionia. 

Ionia, Michigan, August 5, 1896. 
The First Voters' McKinley Club organized to-night 75 strong, with pros- 
pects of 150, sends greetings and assurances of hearty suppoii;. 

Albert M. Davis, President. 
W. A. Benedict, Secretary. 

Muskegon County AH Right. 

Muskegon. Michigan, August 11, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club organized last night with 1,000 members. Accept our 
eongratulations. Michigan is yours. W. D. Kelly, President. 

Two Thousand Strong. 

* Flint, Michigan, August 13, 1896. 

Our McKinley and Hobart Club, organized to-night 2,000 sti-ong for 
protectiofi, reciprocity and sound money . sends greetings to tlieir standard bearer. 

W. C. Lewis, President. 

The Club at CoSdwater. 

Coldwater, Michigan, August 29, 1896. 
Congratulations and greetings from our Club, 500 strong, organized to-day. 

T. A. Hilton, President. 



MINNESOTA. 
The Sound floney flen of St. Louis Park. 

St. Louis Park, Minnesota, August 24, 1896. 
Our Sound Money Club, 100 strong, sends greetings, wishing you success. 

W. S. Shaft, President. 
J. S. Hunter, Secretary 

146 



MISSOURI. 

In Line and at Work. 

Sedalia, Missouri, August 5, 1896. 
Our McKinley, Hobart and Lewis Club organized to-night with a member- 
ship of 650. Our Republicans are all in line and working for success, 

P. H. Sangree, President, 
E. E. Codding, Secretary. 

The Campaign Opened at Callao. 

Callao, Missouri, August 10, 1896. 
A McKinley Club, 160 strong, was organized here last Saturday, and addressed 
by Hon. Joseph Parks. We want "an honest dollar and the chance to earn 
it by honest toil." Lawrence Christ, Comptttteeman. 

TIte nissouri Republican 5tate League. 

Chillicothe, Missouri, August 19, 1896. 
The Republican League of Missouri, in State convention assembled, sends 
you greetings now, and will in November rejoice with you on your election, and 
the X'edemption of Missouri from Democratic rule. 

N. S. PoRTERFiELD, President. 
Chas. F. Wenneker, Secretary. 

Seven Hundred Strong at St. Joe. 

St. Joseph, Missouri, August 24, 1896. 
The McKinley Club, 700 strong, sends greetings to the great exponent of 
protection and sound money. E. D. Atterbury, Secretary. 

At Work in Daviess County. 

Gallatin, Missouri, August 25, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club, just organized, 3(X) strong, sends greetings and pledges 
you the undivided support of Daviess County. Frank Gilbert, President. 

Canton's Great Club. 

Canton, Missouri, August 30, 1896. 
Canton Republican Club, of 500 members in a city of 2,800, sends greet- 
ings, and assures you hearty support. K. D. Starr, President. 

C. C. Chinn, Secretary. 

Every Colored flan in Line. 

KiRKWOoD, Missouri, August 31, 1896. 
Our Colored McKinley Club includes every colored voter iii Kirkwood and 
vicinity, 140 in all. Accept our assurances of earnest and enthusiastic sup- 
port. James Boles, President. 



NEBRASKA. 

The Railroad Men of Lincoln. 

Lincoln, Nebraska, August 5, 1896. 
The Railway Men's Sound Money Club, 300 strong, organized to-night, 
sends greetings and pledges you its hearty support in the cause of sound 
money and protection. C. E. Wilkinson, President. 

S. K. Huntsingek, Secretary. 

147 



The Feeling at Fremont. 

Fremont, x^ebeaska, August 11, 1896. 
The McKinley and Hobart Club, 700 strong, sends greetings to the stand- 
ard bearer of the Republican hosts, whose battle cry is "Protection and 
Sound Money," and pledge to him their earnest support, with assurances that 
"The Prettiest City" will give a large majority for the Eepublican ticket in. 
November. J. M. Shiveley, President. 

C. A. Manville, Secretary. 

Hall County in Line. 

Grand Island, Nebraska, August 11, 1896. 
The 800 members of the McKinley and Hobart Clubs of Hall County, Ne- 
braska, send greetings and pledge you their active support. 

C. W. Brininger, President. 
H. L. Bode, Secretary. 

Confident of Success in Nebraska. 

"Wahoo, Nebraska, August 24, 1896. 
The McKinley and Hobart Club, 200 strong, sends greetings to Major 
McKinley, pledging its support of the Republican ticket and also that of the 
Republicans of Saunders County. We feel confident of the success of the party 
in Nebraska. E. E. Lyle, Tresident. 

M. A. Phelps, Secretary. 

The Sixth Ward Club of Omaha. 

Omaha, Nebraska, August 24, 1896. 
Sixth Ward McKinley and Hobart Club organized Saturday with 1,246- 
members pledging you hearty support. H. T. Leavitt, Tresident. 

Duncan S. Lowry, Secretary. 

The Women of Nebraska. 

David City, Nebraska, August 25, 1896. 
Our Women's McKinley Club, 150 strong, organized last night. Recognizing 
in you the champion of American industry, and believing that on the success of 
the Republican Party depends comfort and contentment in American homes, 
we pledge you our earnest support. Jennie M. Ward, President. 

The Enthusiastic Club at Edgar. 

Edgar, Nebraska, August 28, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Hobart Club, of 250 voters, extends greetings to our next 
President. S. W. Christy, Tresident. 

Georgb H. Avery, Secretary. 



NEVADA. 

The Club at Wadsworth. 

Wadsworth, Nevada, August 24, 1896. 
The Wadsworth McKinley and Hobart Club organized to-night with 110 
members. In a precinct polling 250, we will give you 150 votes on November 3rd. 
Senator Stewart's "dozen Republicans" in this so called silver stronghold will 
materialize many hundred fold. We are for "Patriotism, Protection and Pros- - 
perity " Hearty greetings. E. A. Jackman, President. 

148 



NEW JERSEY. 

The Ciub at Raritan. 

Karitan, New Jersey, August 20, 1896. 
We have the honor of notifying you of the organization of our McKinley 
and Hobart Club, with 150 members. Hearty gi-eetings. 

Joseph S. Fbelinghuysen, Trestdent. 

The Club at Cranford. 

Cranford, New Jersey, August 25, 1896. 
Our Sound Money Voters have established campaign headquarters, and 
under your leadership propose to aid in "opening the mills, instead of the mints," 
and securing full opportunity for full employment at full wages in full dollars. 
Congratulations. Edmund B. Horton, Secretary. 



NEW MEXICO. 

The Club at Raton. 

Eaton, New Mexico, August 27, 1896. 
A McKinley and Hobart Club of 100 members, composed of railroad men 
and otlier citizens who favor sound money, honest government, protection and 
prosperity, was organized here last night. It sends greetings. 

William Oliver, President. 



NEW YORK. 

The First New York Regiment. 

Gexeva, New York, August 13, 1896. 
The First McKinley and Hobart Eegiment of Western New York, 1,200 
strong, completed their organization this evening, and report to you for duty. 

C. W. Fairfax, Colonel, 
P. R. Cole, c/Jdjutant. 



OHIO. 

The Seventh District. 

West Miltox, Ohio, August 11, 1896. 
A McKinley Club, 200 strong, was organized Saturday. Old Union Township 
tvill roll up 500 majority. Success to you. N. G. Aldrich, President. 

The Tenth District. 

Ibonton, Ohio, August 13, 1896. 
A McKinley Club was organized hei-e to-night, 1,170 strong. We send greet- 
ings. Edwakd S. Wilson, T'r^sifi^M/. 

The Toledo Veterans Organize. 

Toledo, Ohio, August 13, 1896. 
The old soldiers of Lucas County had an enthusiastic meeting last night and 
organized a branch of the Union Veterans' Patriotic League. Cordial greetings. 

H. S. Bunker, Trestdent. 

149 



A Protection and Honest Money Banner. 

Cleveland, Ohio, August 13, 1896, 
We have just placed on our mill a McKinley and Hobart banner, in the 
presence of our employes, all of whom are anxiously vraiting for the time to vote 
for McKinley, protection and sound money. We offer our congi-atulations and 
best wishes. • Britton Rolling Mill Co. 

The Eighth District. 

Kexton, Ohio, August 15, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club organized to-night, 500 strong. Much enthusiasm and 
every one wide awake. Congratulations. Charles H. Shanafelt, President. 

The Thirteenth District. 

Crestline, Ohio, August 18, 1896. 
We organized a McKinley Republican Club for protection and sound 
money here to-night. Membership 150. Congratulations. 

A. Howorth, President. 

The Club at Lebanon. 

Lebanon, Ohio, August 19, 1896. 
The McKinley Club, 400 strong, sends gi-eetings. 

George A. Burra, President. 

The Fifth District. 

Defiance, Ohio, August 19, 1896. 
Our Republicans organized a McKinley Sound Money Club to-night, with a 
membership of 200, and the list will be swelled to 500. A number of life long 
Democrats signed the roll. We are in the fight to win. Congi-atulations. 

W. H. McClintock, Chairman. 

The Club at Coshocton. 

Coshocton, Ohio, August 19, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club, with 200 earnest and enthusiastic charter members, 
was organized last night. J. F. Meek, a prominent manufacturer, was elected 
President and in accepting made a stirring speech. Congratulations. 

C. B. McCoy, Secretary. 

The Sixteenth District. 

Bellaire, Ohio, August 20, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Hobart Club, more than 1,000 strong, sends gi-eetings to 
their leader and pledge him their enthusiastic and loyal support. We favor "an 
honest dollar and the chance to earn it by honest toil." Congi-atulations. 

J. E. Blackburn, "President. 

Tuscarawas Protectionists. 

Newcomerstown, Ohio, August 21, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club was organized to-night, 200 strong, for McKinley and 
Hobart, sound money, protection and prosperity. Congratulations. 

D. M. People, Committeeman, 

150 



M 



The Sixteenth District. 

Senecaville, Ohio, August 22, 1896. 
A rousing McKinley Club was organized here last night. We have 150 
members. Cordial greetings. S. J. Crosson, President. 

Ralph Lowry, Secretary. 

The Thirteenth District. 

Greenspring, Ohio, August 22, 1896. 
We had a rousing McKinley meeting last night. A Club of 240 was organ- 
ized with more to follow. Congratulations. J. B. Maule, Chairman. 

Central Club of Cincinnati. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, August 25, 1896. 
The colored citizens of this city organized a Central McKinley Club to- 
night. They send you coixiial greetings and pledges of hearty support. 

Lewis D. Easton, Tresident. 
Robert Harlan, Jr., Secretary. 

The Third District. 

Dayton, Ohio, August 25, 1896. 
Our Workingmen's McKinley Club has organized with a charter mem- 
bership of 2,349. Congratulations. W. E. Sparks, President. 

Willing Workers in Warren County. 

Franklin, Ohio, August 25, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Hobart Club has organized, 400 strong, with more to 
follow. Congratulations. Alex. Boxwell, President. 

W. G. Anderson, Secretary. 
The Seventh Disrtict. 

Springfield, Ohio, August 26, 1896. 
Notwithstanding the presence of a Populist convention, the Republicans of 
Clarke County to-night have perfected the organization of a McKinley Brigade 
of 1,500 members, which will be increased to 3,000 within a week. 

Ward Fbey, Secretary. 
The Eleventh District. 

Adelphi, Ohio, August 26, 1896. 
We have organized a McKinley Club numbering 160 in a town of 600. 

Robert Swinehart, President. 

The Fifteenth District. 

McConnelsville, Ohio, August 26, 1896. 
Morgan County is on fire for McKinley, protection and sound money. 
The County Club organized Tuesday night with over 500 members. The enthu- 
siasm is greater than any time since the Civil War. Congratulations. 

James M. Rusk, Editor Herald. 

The Fourteenth District. 

Fredericktown, Ohio, August 27, 1896. 
The McKinley Honest Money Club, organized Saturday night, 325 strong. 
It sends greetings. W. S. Cummings, President. 

W. B. Johnson, Secretary, 
151 



The Eleventh District. 

Hamden Junction, Ohio, August 28, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Hobart Club, organized here to-night, sends greetings. 
There was great enthusiasm. J. E- Knighton, Secretary. 

A Good Start at Tiffin. 

Tiffin, Ohio, August 28, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Hobart Club, organized last night, with over 600 
members to start on, sends greetings. A. L. Flack, President. 

Willing Workers at Wooster. 

WoosTER, Ohio, August 28, 1896. 
Our "Wooster McKinley Honest Money and Protection Club organized last 
night with 400 members. Your Letter of Acceptance was warmly endorsed. 

James B. Taylor, President. 

The Fifth District. 

Liberty Centre, Ohio, August 29, 1896. 
The McKinley and Hobart Club, formed here to-niglit, 150 strong, sends you 
greetings, and pledges you its hearty support in November. 

E. L. Viers, President. 
G. H. McLane, Secretary. 

The Fourteenth District. 

Huron, Ohio, August 29, 1896. 
A McKinley and Hobart Club of 275 members organized to-night, after 
twenty hours' canvass, in precincts of 500 voters, largely Democratic. Great 
enthusiasm and more signers to follow. C. M. Ray, President. 

The Seventeenth District. 

Canal Dover, Ohio, August 31, 1896. 
Republicans of Canal Dover organized Saturday night with 536 members. 
We style ourselves the McKinley Club. Congratulations. 

W. W. Weber, Secretary. 

The Twelfth District. 

Elmwood, Ohio, August 31, 1896. 
We send you greetings. We have organized a McKinley and Sound Money 
Club, of Washington and Perry townships, Franklin County, Ohio, at Dublin, 
300 strong, many of whom were formerly Democrats, 

Howard T. Davis, Secretary. 



OREGON. 

The Club at Corvallis. 

Corvallis, Oregon, August 22, 1896. 
The Benton County McKinley Club organized last night, with 100 enthusi» 
ftstic members, sends greetings and best wishes to its standard bearer. 

Fred. Yates, Secretary. 

152 



Where Rolls the Oregon. 

Eugene, Oregon, August 29, 1896. 
The Eugene McKinley and Hobart Club organized last night, 350 strong, 
and instructed me to wire you greetings and assure you that "William McKinley, 
Protection and Sound Money will sweep the country "where rolls the Oregon." 

W. J. KiBKENDALL, President. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 

Their Friend and Leader. 

Sharon, Pennsylvania, August 10, 1896. 
A McKinley and Hobart Club was organized here last night with 1,000 mem- 
bers. The membership is made up of iron workers, who believe in protection 
to American industries and sound money. They consider you their friend and 
leader. W. T. Ward, a roller in a sheet mill, was elected President. Congratu- 
lations. J. M. Evans, Secretary. 

The Club at Corry. 

CoRRY, Pennsylvania, August 18, 1896. 
A Sound Money McKinley and Hobart Club of 325 members was organized 
here last night. It was distinctly a business men's meeting and in a section 
where free silverites have hitherto claimed everything. It presages sweeping 
denunciation of such heresies at the polls in November. Congratulations 

C. H. Bagley, Secreta-rjy, 

Five Hundred in the Fifth Ward. 

New Castle, Pennsylvania, August 26, 1896. 
The Fifth Ward organized a McKinley and Hobart Club last night. We 
have now about 500 members and are still growing. Best wishes. 

John E. Potter, Chairman. 

The Club at Catasaqua. 

Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, August 29, 1898. 
Our McKinley and Hobart Club organized this evening, amid great en- 
.thusiasm, with 400 members. Congratulations. Jacob Roberts, President. 

The Club at Indiana. 

Indiana, Pennsylvania, August 31, 1896. 
The enthusiastic Republicans of Marion Center, Indiana County, organized 
a McKinley and Hobart Club to-night, 500 strong. All send gi-eetings. 

P. J. Thompson, fr&s/i^w/. 



TENNESSEE. 

The Colored Voters of Harriman. 

Harriman, Tennessee, August 6, 1898; 
Our colored McKinley Club organized last night. Great enthusiasm. We 
send greetings and are pledged to labor for honest money, a pi-otective tariff and. 
an honest administration of the United States Government, all of which we. 
know you represent. R. M. Liggett, President 

J. Q. Vi^n:.EY',.Se£retiWft.. 
153 



Blount County Aroused. 

Maryville, Tennessee, August 21, 1896. 
The McKinley and Hobart Club, 300 strong, sends gi-eetings. We will 
carry Blount County by 1,500 majority for McKinley and Hobart, sound 
money, reciprocity and protection. John B, Blankinship, TresidenU 

The City of Bristol. 

Bristol, Tennessee, August 24, 1896. 
Greetings from our McKinley and Hobart Club, the largest ever organized 
In the city of Bristol. H. C. Wood, President. 

H. M. Pearson. Secretary, 



TEXAS. 

The First Club in Johnson County. 

Cleburne, Texas, Ailgust 9, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Hobart Club, of sixty-five members, sends greetings. 
This is the first Republican club ever organized in this, Johnson County. Our 
motto is, "An Honest Dollar and the Chance to Earn it by Honest Toil." 

A. T. HiCKEY, 5^fr^/ijrj' 

The Capital City Club of Texas. 

Austin, Texas, August 28. 1896. 
The Capital City McKinley Club organized here to-day, 1,000 members 
strong, sends greetings. Edward Anderson. Tresidait. 



UTAH. 

A Women's McKinley Club. 

Salt Lake City, Utah, August 28, 1896. 
A Women's McKinley Club was organized here to-day with 140 enrolled 
members. Congratulations. Katharine B. Parsons, Secretary. 



WASHINGTON. 

All Wage Workers. 

Franklin, Washington, August 3, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Hobart Club with 193 members, every one wage workers 
and including every voter in the town, with only six exceptions, sends greetings 
to our standard bearer. J. J. Smith, Tresident. 

The Capital City in Line. 

Olympia, Washington, August 9, 1896. 
Our McKinley Club organized this evening with over 300 members, all 
pledged to sound money, sound government, and victory. 

JuiiN F. Govv'EY, Trestdertt, 

154 



The Washington State Convention. 

Tacoma, "Washixgtox, August 26, 189b. 
The Eepublicans of Washington, in State Convention assembled, have 
rekindled the fires of 1861 and 1865 on the mountains and in the forests of the 
Evergreen State. The tide of patriotism is at its flood and on the third of 
November next the Republican Party like the Israelites of old will march between 
the waves of the Red Sea of Populism on one side and of Democracy on the 
other, straight to the Promised Land of honest money, protection, and pros- 
perity. We send greetings. Albert S. Cole, Chairman. 

The Editors of Washington. 

, Tacoma, Washington , August 26, 1896. 

The Republican Editorial Association of the State of Washington, just or- 
ganized, congratulates you upon the certainty of your triumphant election in 
November, and pledges you its most hearty support. 

James D. Hoge, President. 

Pure and Sound. 

EvEKETT, Washington, August 29, 1896. 
Our McKinley and Hobart Club organized to-night, with 460 members. AVe 
send you greetings and pledge the cordial support of the Republicans in this 
new industrial city. William C. Butlek, Tresident. 



WYOMING. 

Protection and Prosperity Forever. 

Lander, Wyoming, August 29, 1896. 
We are directed to inform you that our McKinley Club organized to-night 
with 125 members on the roU. We favor "Patriotism, Protection and Pros- 
perity" and have enlisted for the war. Congratulations. 

J. D. AVooDRUFF, President 
H. E. Wadsworth, Secretary. 



]66 



MCKINLEY'S SPEECHES IN SEPTEMBER. 



WEST VIRGINIA EDITORS. 

Tne Republican Press Association of West Virginia arrived in Canton, over 
the Cleveland, Canton and Southern Railroad, Tuesday afternoon, September 
Jst. The party was one hundred in number, including the ladies. They 
were met at the depot by the Reception Committee and given a royal v^-elconxe. 
Those constituting the party were: Hon. A. B. White, wife and son, Daily 
State Journal, Parkersburg; Hon. J. K. Hall, wife and son ; John Frew, wife 
and daughter ; Joseph Borland, Hugh Scott, Joseph Sigapoose, Daily Intelli- 
gencer, Wheeling ; Edward Manning, Daily News, Wheeling ; J. B Crouch and 
wife. Constitution, Parsons; Joseph Dunn and wife, Braxton Central, Sutton; 
Joseph J. Peterson, Daily Herald, Huntington; S. C. McIntosh, Journal, Faj- 
etteville ; R. Hunter Graham, Republican, Hinton ; C. A. M. Meadows, Boone 
Boom, Racine; W. Hirst Curry and S. J. Proctor, Daily Telegi-am, Charles- 
ton; P. C. Stevens, Irrepressible, Winfleld ; E. H. Flynn and wife. Record, 
Spencer; T. T. McDougal, wife and daughter. Advance, Credo; Joseph F. 
White and E. G. Hinman, Republican, Fayetteville ; J. W. Holt, A. T. Holt 
and W. H. Holt, Sentinel, Grafton ; William T. Burnside, Delta, Buckhannon ; 
A. A. Bee and wife. Herald, AVest Union ; R. A. Hall and C. D. Vassor, Inde- 
pendent, Weston; Joseph Gray, Times, Elizabeth; B. Randolph Bias and 
Douglas E. Hughes, Mingo Circulator, Williamson ; J. J. Sigler, daughter and 
Miss Roberts, Review, Harrisville ; C. L. Musgraw and William Marshall, 
Republican, Fairmont ; J. Ellsoffer, Jewish Review, Wheeling; T. AV. Garvin, 
Ohio Valley Farmer, Wheeling; J. M. Powell and wife. West Virginian, Fair- 
mont; A. B. Moore, Wetzel Republican, New Martinsville; A. B. Smith and 
Miss Margaret Smith, Herald, Martinsburg; U. S. G. Pitzer and D. Thompson, 
Independent, Martinsburg ; Hon. Stuart T. Reed and Hon. Charles W. Lynch, 
Telegram, Clarksburg; J. W. Burchinal and wife, and A. R. Lainge and wife, 
Herald, Moundsville ; M. F. Hall and R. P. Caruthers, Republican, Philippi; 
0. Cook and wife. Banner, Cameron; H. B. Harman, Grant County Gazette, 
Maysville; W. P. Gould and S. S. Sage, Clay County Star, Clay C. H. : 
Samuel Jacob, Herald, Wellsburg; J. D. Brown and wife, and A. W. Browj 
and wife. Independent, New Cumberland ; Charles G. Blake and wife, Tuckei 
County Republican, Davis ; J. R. Clifford, Pioneer Press, Martinsburg; C. B 
Smith, State Journal, Parkersburg; J. E. McGlothlin, News, Ravenswood, and 
Hon. P. W. Morris, Ritchie Gazette, Harrisville, Accompanying the party 
were Hon. A. R. Campbell and son. Wheeling ; M. LaFolette, Republican can- 
didate for State Auditor; Hon. C. D. Elliott, an associate editor of the Brox- 
ton Central, President of the State League of Republican Clubs, and J. J. 
Peterson, ex-Consul to Honduras. About 3:00 o'clock the editors and their 
friends left the Hurford House for the McKinley lawn. They were cordially 
reeeived on the veranda, where Hon. P. W. Morris, President of the Associa- 
troi\, made an eloquent address presenting the visitors. He said : 

156 



"Major McKint^ky: On the introduction to you of the members of the 
Re-publican Press Association of West Virginia it is proper that fitting ac- 
knowledgment of the respec'/ in which you are held, of veneration to you as a 
statesman, of regard for you as a citizen of our common country, of love for 
you as one of the great brotherhood of mankind, be made ; and after all, it is 
not from glory and from greatness that come our sweetest and truest com- 
munications, but from the common relationships of life, for to the mother the 
tenderest sound in all the wide universe is the crowing of her babe, and in the 
hand clasp of friendship, as man looks into the face of his fellow man may be such 
faithfulness, trust and integrity as do greatest honor to us all, even though the 
grip may not be as strong and saving in all cases as that of the lion of the tribe 
of Judah, or the hand pierced with nails, or the eyes filled with blood running 
down from a crown of thorns, or the heart broken for love and for sacrifice. It is 
appropriate in more senses than one that we should pay personal tribute to 
you. Rectitude in private life, uprightness every day in the year, strict regard 
for every legal, social and iporal obligation, deserve the highest commendation. 
God be thanked that there are men, and the Nation believes you are one of 
them, who stand 'four square to every wind of heaven.' The light that beats 
upon the throne is said to be fierce, but we believe the day the gi-eat conven- 
tion of the best and greatest political party the world has ever known, nomi- 
nated you for the greatest ofiice in the gift of any people, it chose one vphose 
character will bear the test of fire, and whose whole life stands out white and 
clean as an ocean cliff, upon which beat all the waters of the mighty deep. To 
lay upon a man a shining blade and dub him knight or lord may be much, but 
for him to be touched with the crimson hand that bestowed peace and right- 
eousness, so that he may have the title of Christian gentleman, is far more. 
We come from the valleys and the mountains — and I guess most everywhere 
there is a valley there are a couple of hills. It seems to me that it must be 
entirely true that mountaineers are always free. He wiio treads the mountain 
heights must realize that God ordained that all men are created equal. The 
mountaineer is near to nature and she speaks to him in the winds that breathe 
through the green old forests ; in the gleam of the sunbeams that fall like golden 
threads upon the tapestry of green ; in the laughter of brooks that wind their 
silver cords among her shadowed rocks and light crowned hiils;in the stars 
that sparkle through the rifted arches of her cloud canopied cathedral ; and his 
study is the flowers that bloom upon nature's breast, while he looks from 
nature up to nature's God and Master. In stating that we are Repub- 
licans we mainly state why we are here, although already having our 
hearts it was well worth our while to take this journey to give you our 
hands. Why should not West Virginia editors who are Republicans visit 
the Republican nominee for President of the United States? It seems to me 
a strikingly fitting act. West Virginia was for William McKinley for Presi- 
dent (applause) and West Virginia editors had much to do in directing the 
public eye toward him and pointing out his deserts. West Virginia is the 
neighbor, the friend and the ally of Ohio, separated from her only by a shining 
river, with interests that are identical, with a people alike in aspiration, in 
culture and in rectitude. Again West Virginia, sundered from the old State, 
as she was within the memory of most of us, and made a star in the constella- 
tion of States with a stroke of the pen of Abraham Lincoln, the grandest single 
figure in the history of the Nineteenth Century, is peculiarly the child of the 
Republican Party, even if she has been astray for some years. The Republican 
Party may be trusted to carry out the right. Perhaps this may be said to be 

157 



an unusually critical time in the history of the country. Dangerous efforts are 
being made to array class against class, section against section. If the lamp 
of experience is to light the country, if the path of wisdom is to be followed, it 
is to the Republican Party we must look. Only two questions greatly agitate 
the country. ,»One of these and the one having the most attention at this time, 
should not be to the front at all. I allude to the so called money question. 
The care for money troubles in this country are a well-filled Treasury and the 
balance of trade in our favor. "With an insufficient revenue, to coin all the 
silver of the world, if it were all gold, would not fill the Treasury. The Repub- 
lican Party can be trusted to deal fairly and honestly with silver and to give 
the country all the silver money that the real wants of trade demand and the 
true rules of finance will permit. The Republican Party favors the free and 
unlimited coinage of silver by international agreement and there is no other 
safe way. To attempt this in any other way would be a difficult and dangerous 
experiment and this is not the time for any such experiment. The other 
political question that is to the fore is that of pro,tection to American indus- 
tries. (Applause.) This is a matter, to refer to which, brings yourself dis- 
tinctly to mind. The bill that is allied with your name was such a one as to 
make you dear to West Virginia Republicans and with other reasons to make us 
believe that you are the most suitable man in all the land for President. A 
tariff bill that at once brings in sufficient revenue to supply every proper need 
of the Government and properly protect American industries, is what West 
A^irginia desires, and such a bill was the one that bore your name. (Applause.) 
The reason for all this is not hard to find. It is because West Virginia has 
beneath her rugged surface enough coal for the world ; iron ore in vast quanti- 
ties ; has great prospects, and sheep and cattle upon a thousand hills ; has fertile 
valleys and rich hillsides. Without protection our vast natural wealth is 
-chained helpless. We look towards you and our party on the one hand, and 
towards our State, great in natural wealth, on the other, and we remember 
that these rugged mountains are ours to see and possess; these flowing rivers 
are ours for trade and commerce ; these unfailing resources of our State, these 
splendid products, the iron, the wool, the clay, the coal, are all ours for 
material growth and substantial prosperity ; but above all and greater than all 
else, the privileges, the opportunities, the attainments of a free and happy gov- 
ernment by the people, of the people and for the people, are all ours to ennoble 
and to bless. And in this is our pride, in our integrity, in our unsullied reputa- 
tion ; in the untrammeled and unassailable liberties of all who dwell within 
our borders ; in our wise, virtuous and happy people. So to sustain and perpet- 
uate these we depend upon that great, progressive, unconquerable party, of 
which you are now the head. In the name of the Republican Press Association 
of West Virginia, I bid you godspeed : I wish you success ; I greet you as the 
coming President of the United States. In filling the position to which the 
people will elect you, you will preserve the white lily of your integrity, add to 
your splendid reputation, and keep pure and unspotted the honor of our 
ibeloved country. 

'What's hallowed ground ? 'Tis what gives birth 
To sacred thoughts in souls of worth ! 
Peace ! Independence ! Truth ! Go forth, 

Earth's compass round 
And your liigh priesthood shall make earth, 

All hallowed ground.' " 

(Great applause.) 

158 



Major McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Morris and Gentlemen op the Republican Press Association op 
West Virginia: It affords me sincere pleasure to bid you welcome to my 
State, my city and my home. From no quarter could visitors be more welcome, 
nor from any body of men, than the representatives of the Republican press 
of West Virginia — from a State in which I am intensely interested as a citizen 
and a Republican, because I believe that upon the success of Republican prin- 
ciples her advancement and welfare largely depends. (Applause.) The cause 
in which you ai-e engaged is one of both conscience and interest. The Repub- 
lican cause never was more just and righteous than this year, and the triumph 
of its principles was never more essential to the general welfare of the Ameri- 
ican people. We have had great political contests in the past, but I doubt if 
any was ever waged which involved higher interests to the people and to the 
country at large than those presented in this campaign. (Applause and cries 
of 'That's right.') Nothing is more vital to the standing and progress of a 
country than the preservation of its credit and financial honor. (Applause and 
cries of 'That's right, too.') Nothing is more indispensable to business and 
prosperity than that the currency of the country shall be so honest that it can 
cheat nobody. ( Great cheering. ) Nothing is of greater moment to the welfare 
of the country than the adoption of a policy which will give to labor and capital 
constant employment with fair returns. (Applause and cries of 'Good.') But, 
gentlemen, lying benea'.h all these and more important than all these, is the 
preservation of law and order — the reign of domestic quiet. (Cheers.) All 
these issues are embraced in the contention wiiich is upon us this year. In 
connection with these questions, as editors and publishers, you have the 
gravest responsibilities. You help to make public sentiment and right public 
sentiment is what is most needed at this juncture of our National affairs. 
Never was the press of the country more aroused than now ; never did the Re- 
publican cause have such mighty support from the newspapers of the United 
States as it has to-day. This help is not confined to the Republican press alone, 
but includes many of the greatest newspapers which have hitherto advocated 
the Democratic cause. (Great applause.) All this is an evidence that the 
people appreciate that a crisis is upon them, and that the way to avoid that 
crisis is for the jjatriotic men of every section of the country to unite and act 
together in the common cause of country. (Great applause.) It is no selfish 
concern, therefore, that prompts me to express the hope that West Virginia 
may become permanently a Republican State (cheers and cries of 'It will go 
Republican this fall, all right') and that what she gained so gloriously in 1894, 
will not be lost in 1896. (Great applause.) The Republican Party aims higher 
than that — it is not merely the success of individuals or party, but the good of 
the country, it seeks ; and it is in that spirit, animated only by patriotic senti- 
ment, that I wish constantly to speak and act. (Applause.) There is in my' 
judgment, no State whose prosperity is linked more closely to Republican 
policies than West Virginia. You have extensive river commerce, both on the 
Ohio and tlie Kanawha, and this is never so prosperous as when your great 
steel, iron and glass interests, your mines, your mills, your factories, are busily 
employed. (Cries of 'That's right.') Your railroads reaching now more than 
two thousand miles, with their thousands of employes, are all better off when 
every field of industry is employed. Every railroad employe from trackman to 
manager understands this as he never appreciated it before. Then have you 
considered that perhaps no other equal territory, no other 25,000 square miles 

159 



of the soil of the United States, mighty as her resources are, contains so many 
interests whose development, growth and progress are so dependent upon the 
maintenance of the great Republican doctrine of protection as the State of 
West Virginia? (Great applause.) Your development is new; your rich re- 
sources are scarely touched. You have the best of coal in inexhaustible quan- 
tities, an area three-fifths as large as that of your entire State, producing last 
year more than eleven million tons, a yield exceeded by only three other States 
of the Union. Your product of coke is about 1,250,000 tons, equal in quality to 
the output of any other State except Pennsylvania. In timber your interests 
are of remarkable importance, with an annual product of something over 250,- 
000,000 feet, your saw-mills giving employment to thousands of men and boys, 
with an annual pay-roll of thousands of dollars, not including your logging, 
operations. Then there are the products of your stave mills and the output 
of your great tie industry, which certainly added as much more in wages, when 
running in full and successful operation, prior to 1893. Your oil product has 
approximated 10,000,000 barrels per annum. This industry is but in its infancy, 
and the possibilities of your oil fields are almost incredible. But your wealth 
does not end in railroad and river trade, iron, steel, glass, coal, coke, timber, 
pottery, or other manufactures of mineral and forest products, for West Vir- 
ginia is a great State in her agricultural resoui'ces. (Applause.) Only about 
one-half the State is now in use for. farming and grazing, but agi-iculture is the 
chief interest in the majority of your counties, while wool growing and stock 
raising have assumed large proportions. How much these several industries 
have suffered in the last three years, you know better than I can tell. How 
much the wool growers have lost, those who have sheep and raise wool should 
know accurately. They ought, to know what the experience of the last three 
years has cost them to the very cent. All these interests are directly affected, 
all aredirectly benefited or injured by our industrial legislation. You know and 
the people know, that all these interests were advanced by Republican legislation 
(applause) and that all of them have been more or less injured by Democratic 
legislation. (Great applause and cries of 'You are right.') With such almost 
inexhaustible wealth in your midst ; with such possibilities of development and 
growth ; with so excellent a foundation for increased business and greater 
prosperity, I bid you newspaper men to lose no opportunity to arouse your 
people to the realization of their true intei-ests and to the immense importance 
to them of the issues of the present campaign as they affect their material wel- 
fare in every business, calling or occupation that can be named. Your interests 
as a people no longer run on sectional lines, (Cheers.) Thank God the last 
lingering estrangements between the North and the South are being forever ef- 
faced ! ( Great applause. ) The appeal for the restoration of the American system 
of protection, and the continuance of a sound system of finance is infinitely more 
important to the people of West Virginia than any other political questions that 
could engage theirattention. (Applause.) Sectional questions are no longer dis- 
cussed. Patriotism is paramount, and the people's welfare and the country's 
honor are the supreme and overshadowing issues commanding the attention of 
both North and South. (Great applause.) Under the beneficent operations of 
the Republican industrial policy, your State has in a brief period practically 
doubled its population and quadrupled its wealth; and if you continue to 
advance in the next twenty years as you advanced from 1870 to 1890, you can 
only hope to do it under a system which encourages home industry and gives 
steady employment to willing hands at remunerative wages. (Tremendous 
cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for MoKiNLEY.') Your development and pros- 

160 



peri ty under a wise system of tanlf will give you better towns, better farms 
farm houses and barns, better schools, better homes and happier people. (Ap- 
plause and cries of 'That's right.) Take the bowlders out of the stream of pro- 
gress, do not shut the door of opportunity in the face of your own future and 
that of your children. On the contrary, open wide your gates ; invite new peo- 
ple and new capital to come in. But remember you can do this only by a 
restoration of confidence. You can never do it, if you destroy confidence. 
(Great applause.) Strive for a fuller development of your industries ; build up 
a greater and more profitable home market for the products of your farms ; 
advance always that prosperity which enables the employer to pay the highest 
scale of wages to the workingmen of America— not the lowest. (Cheers.) Exalt 
the character of your labor ; never degrade it. Promote that comfort and con- 
tentment at home which conduces to good citizenship, good morals and good 
order. Stand up for America and America will stand up for you ! (Great ap- 
plause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') Eestore the principles in our 
legislation which gave us prosperity. (Cries of 'That's right.') Keep the credit 
of the Government untarnished above all else. (Applause.) Keep the currency 
up to the highest standard of civilized nations. (Renewed applause.) No 
nation of the world should have better money than we have and no nation of the 
world has better money than we have now. (Great cheeri ng.) It is no i-eflec- 
tion either upon our honor or independence that we refuse to adopt the financial 
policy of China or Mexico. (Renewed cheering.) Let us have neither free 
trade nor free silver. (Cries of 'We won't.' ) Work and wages have been cut in 
two, and we spurn the same experiment on the money in which they are paid. 
(Loud applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKixley.') We want the same good 
money in the future that we constantly have had since January 1, 1879, and 
that we intend forever hereafter to have. (Cries of 'That's right.') We want 
honest dollars and intend like honest people to honestly pay our honest debts 
M-ith them — both as a Government and a people. (Cheers.) Our great need 
now is a chance to earn these honest dollars by honest work at home. (Ap- 
plause. ) Let us do our w^ork in the United States (renewed applause) and then 
there will not be an idle man beneath our flag. (Continued applause and cries 
of 'Hurrah for McKiNLEY.') Such is the policy, newspapermen and friends, 
that I bid you most zealously urge, for the great good of the people of West 
Virginia, and the ultimate good of all the people of the Nation. (Cheers.) I 
thank ypu for the courtesy and cordiality of this call. I thank your eloquent 
spokesman for the gi-acious message of support and good will which he brings 
to me from the Republican press of your State, and I assure you it will give me 
great pleasure to meet each one of you personally." (Great applause and long 
continued cries of "Hurrah for MoKinley.") 



THE HOME OF SENATOR QUAY, 

The people of Beaver County, Penifsylvania, turned out en masse to pay 
their respects to Major McKinley on Saturday morning, September 5th. The 
delegations began to arrive at 10 o'clock, the first section being from Beaver 
Falls. This was followed a half-hour later by the second section from New 
Brighton, while at 11 :00 o'clock the third section came from Freedom, Roches- 
ter, Beaver, and other towns. When the line took up the march to Major 
McKinley's residence there were fully 2,500 people in tlie rear of the mounted 
escort. Following the horsemen came the Canton Escort Club, composed of 

161 



ex-Pennsylvanians now residing ii". Canton, who recently perfected an organiza- 
tion to meet tkeir former fellow citizens, and the Keeeption Committee, com- 
posed of other prominent citizens of Canton. The 10th Regiment N. G. P. 
Band of New Brighton led the Pennsylvania people, under direction of Sergeant 
Harris, a carriage contained several of the distinguished men of the party— 
Hon. Charles C. Townsend, Congressman representing the Beaver district and 
a member of the House during Major MoKinley's service in that body, Edward 
A. Fretiiey, who greeted Major McKixley on behalf of the delegation. General 
John S. Littell, commanding the Beaver County people, and Hon. E. H. 
Thomas, President of the Lincoln Club. Following these gentlemen were the 
various visiting delegations, and the Cadet Drum Corps of Beaver Falls, the 
Pioneer McKinley Club, the Union Veterans' Patriotic League, Citizens' Clubs, 
9,nd others. Each member had a sprig of golden rod pinned in the buttonhole 
of his coat lapel, as an emblem of the sound money doctrines with which the 
meinbers were imbued. Arriving at the McKinley home the Beaver Reception 
Committee was escorted to Major McKinley's office, and soon after the Major 
appeared with them on the porch, when cheer after cheer was given him, sev- 
eral minutes elapsing before quiet could be restored. Mr. Edward A. Frethey 
presented Major MoKinley and said : " The visitors here to-day represent six- 
ty-four manufacturing establishments, having a combined capital of over $12,- 
000,000. Beaver County is strong for protection (applause) and has come to 
greet the next President, Major William McKinley, whom I have the honor 
&nd pleasure of introducing." (Great cheering.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: It gives me great pleasure to receive this call from 
the workingmen and other citizens of Beaver County in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania. (Applause. ) I greet you at my home as friends and supporters in the great 
cause in which the honor of the country and the prosperity of the people are so 
clearly and directly involved. (Applause. ) You are our nearest neighbors on the 
east and are closely connected socially, and in business relations, with tlie 
feaisterh part of the old Congressional district which for years I had the honor 
to represent. From your expressions and all that I can see and learn ,^ the 
people of this country never were so eager to vote as now. (Great cheering.) 
The last four years have been long years— the longest years since our great 
Civil War. (Cries of 'That's right.' ) Everthing has suffered but the Republican 
Party. (Laughter.) Everything has been blighted but Republican principles 
(applause and laughter) which are dearer and more highly cherished and 
glorious than ever. (Cries of 'That's right.') The people of the country are 
only waiting for an opportunity to embody those great principles once more in 
public law and public administration. (Applause.) I have great affection for 
your old county and commonwealth. (Cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley and 
Beaver County.') Both have stood for the Nation and the Nation's honor in 
every crisis of our history and no member of the Union has been more closely 
attached to Republican doctrines and Republican policies than the State of 
Pennsylvania. (Cries of 'Hurrah for Pennsylvania.') No State has achieved 
higher rank in manufacturing and mining than yours, and no State has been 
more devoted to the great doctrine of a protective tariff. (Tremendous cheer- 
ing.) Nor does any State more clearly exemplify the splendid advantages of 
that great system than yours. I do not imagine that you are ready to give it 
up (applause and cries of 'No, never,') but that you wiJl still cling to it as a 

162 



sheet anchor in every storm. (Applause.) Kot only protoction, but sound 
money, the honor of the country, its financial integrity, its good name — are all 
at stake in this great contest, and every lover of country must be aroused to 
duty and quickened to responsibility in the impending crisis. (Applause and 
cries of 'You needn't worry about that.') Our glorious country has suffered no 
dishonor in the past ; it must suffer no dishonor in the future. (Great applause. ) 
The past is secure and glorious. The present and future are our fields of duty and 
•opportunity. Those who have preceded us have done well their part. Shall we 
be less honest, patriotic and brave in the performance of our part? (Cries of 
'No, no.') In America we spurn all class distinctions. (Applause and cries of 
'Correct, correct.') We are all equal as citizens, equal at the ballot, equal in 
privilege and opportunity. In America, thank God, no man is born to power; 
no one is assured of station or command, except it be by his own worth or 
usefulness. But to any post of honor all who choose may aspire, and history has 
proved that the humblest in youth are frequently the most honored and powerful 
in the maturity of strength and age. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'Hurrah for 
McKiNLEY.') It has long been demonstrated that the philosophy of Jeffer- 
son is true, and that this, the land of the free and self -governed, is the 
strongest as well as the best governinjent in the world. (Applause.) Let us 
keep it so. (Cries of 'we will do our part.') I do not recall a time in the history 
of the country when the question of protection was at issue that your State did < 
not declare by emphatic majorities in its favor. Two years ago you gave t© 
your distinguished Governor, General Hastings, (applause) the largest majority 
ever given in your State, and probably the largest popular majority ever given 
to any candidate in any State of the Union. (Applause and cries of 'We will 
make yours bigger.') I do not forget that this delegation comes from the home 
•of that distinguished leader and unrivaled Republican organizer (great cheer- 
ing and cries of 'Qu.w,' 'Quay,') whose devotion to Republicanism 
has never wavered, whose splendid services to the cause have more 
than once assisted to achicAje the most signal triumphs in both 
your State and the Nation. (Greaf, applause.) I remember well when the 
Wilson tariff law went from the House to the Senate, and was under discus- 
sion, that Senator Quay stood resolutely for every interest in his State and 
prevented injury to her great industries by his famous speech, which was the 
longest ever delivered upon the tariff question in the history of the Republic, 
and has not yet been concluded. (Great laughter and applause.) When he 
was fighting for the industries of your State on the floor of the Senate, if he 
could not save them in any other way he resumed his speech (laughter) 
which went on day after day (renewed laughter) without apparent diminution 
of the manuscript which lay before him. (Continued laughter and cries of 
'•Hurrah for Quay.") I wish he might have been a part of this great delega- 
tion to-day, but his absence is accounted for and compensated by the fact that 
on another part of this great field of contest he is serving the same cause in 
which you are engaged, and for the success of which so many of the people are 
striving. (Applause.) It is a great cause for which we contend this year; my 
countrymen, one commanding the support of every patriot, for it represents 
the National honor and stands for National prosperity. (Applause and cries 
of "That's right.") It involves every chei'ished interest of the country aad 
embraces the welfare of every citizen of the Republic. (A voice: "You told 
the truth then.") It involves the labor and wages of the people and the earn- 
ings by them. It involves, I say, a truly American, patriotic policy, the one 
-best for your ad vaneerr en t and prosperity. Will you support it ? (Cries of 

163 



"Yes, yes, we will do that all right.") Men of Pennsylvania, friends a.iJi 
neighbors, I bid you be faithful to the right as shown by the acts, traditions 
and teachings of the fathers. Make their standard of patriotism and duty 
your own. Be true to their glorious example and whatever the difficulties 
of the present or problems of the future may be meet them in the same 
spirit of unflinching loyalty to country and to public morals, the same devotion 
and love for home and family, the same acknowledgment of dependence upon 
God that always characterized the grand men who builded the Republic and 
those who have sustained it since. (Applause.) Upon that course rests your 
greatest prosperity and happiness and the surest attainment of your best and 
dearest interests and hopes. Have coniidence in the strength of our free 
institutions. They must be preserved, for there is no hope in the world like 
them. (Great applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKixley.') It has given 
me extreme pleasure, I assure you, to meet you here at my home this morning, 
and it will give me still greater pleasure to greet each one of you personally." 
(Tremendous cheering.) 

A LABOR DAY VISIT. 

Hardly had tlie sound of the speech-making of the noon hour died away, 
Saturday, September 5th, and Major McKikley had lunch with his family, than 
word was brought to him that a delegation from Pittsburg of hundreds of busi- 
ness, laboring and professional men, and their wives and children was on its 
way from the depot to his home to meet him. The three sections began to 
ar'-ive on tlie Pennsylvania Railroad shortly after 3:00 o'clock. It was an ex- 
cursion planned by the Pittsburg Leader and was one of the largest that has 
vis'ted Canton from a distance during tlie past three montlis. The delegation 
consisted of a thousand people and was met at the Fort Wayne depot by the 
Canton Troop and the ex-Pennsylvanians' Escort Club of Canton and proudly 
conducted to Major McKtxley's home. Here Hon. AV. A. Stoxe, Congressman 
from the Allegheny district, acted as Chairman. When Major MgKinley 
stepped from his hall door upon tiae veranda he was greeted with the most 
enthusiastic cheering, and wlien Col. Stone presented him as the next Pi'esi- 
dent, the crowd gave three cheers again, and not satisfied with that, cheered 
again and again in volume almost equal to that of the evening following his 
nomination. Col. Stoxe introduced Vice President Carney, of the Amalgama- 
ted Association of Iron and Steel Workers of Pittsburg, who made a stirring 
address on behalf of the wage earners. He showed most effectively tliat Major 
McKixLEY is the friend of the hxboring man and that he is and always has been 
labor's champion. Mr. Carxey said: "The workingmen of America want 
work and a thousand mints couldn't maKe tinaes easier. We know that if the 
country was flooded with clieap money, none of us workingmen, or the profes- 
sional men eitlier, could get it without working for it with brawn or brain." 
His eloquent and earnest words were cheered to the echo. Mr Samuel Hamil- 
Tox, a prominent business man of Pittsburg, made a pleasing and earnest talk 
in behalf of the business men, pledging their suj)port at the coming election. 
While he was speaking a part of the delegation came up, tlie band heading it 
playing "The Red, White and Blue." Mr. Hamilton said that being something 
of a musician himself he knew it was useless to talk against a brass band. He 
suggested instead that all join in the chorus, and it was an inspiring scene as 
the thousand or more voices sang "three cheers for tlie red, white and blue." 
Mr. Hamilton continuing said that Major McKinley's Letter of Acceptance was. 

164 



one of the grandest and strongest paper ever given the American public. He 
spoke of ex-President IlARrasox's address in Xe\v York a few days afterward ; 
then of the great victory achieved by the Republicans in the Vermont election, 
and declared that "intelligent, unpurchased ballots await the dawning of a 
better day." Mr. A. B. Hay, an able attorney, the next speaker, was introduo 
ed by Col. Stoxe in behalf of the professional men of the Iron City. He spoke 
of the need of the country at present on part of all honest, intelligent citizens to 
support the law. Major McKinley had known the need of faithful comrades 
at the front and loyal citizens in the rear. Patriotic citizens and lovers of the 
supremacy of law need only to consult the platform of the parties to enroll 
themselves under the Republican standard. He said the so called Democracy 
sought to mislead the voters and to inflame the prejudices of the people and 
create distinctions which would divide them into classes, "There are no 
classes in America," said Mr. Hay; "one man is as good as another and all 
have equal opportunities. There are many diversified industries and professions 
— but we all belong to one class — that of laboring people. On behalf of the 
professional men, Major McKixley, I greet you as President by brevet already, 
but you will attain full honor and power on Kovember third next." This senti- 
ment was received with great applause and following up the cue. Col. Stone 
proposed three cheers for the next President. Three cheers would not suffice, 
■for as Major IMcKixley stepped on . to a chair the deafening applause which 
gi*eeted him lasted for several minutes. When quiet was restored Major 
McKixLEY spoke with great power, and at several effective patriotic utterances 
he was compelled to pause until the enthusiastic cheering permitted him to 
proceed. At the close of his speech he shook hands with each member of the 
delegation, who, with but few exceptions, greeted him as our next President, 
He said : 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, and My Fellow Citizens: I both 
thank and congratulate the Pittsburg Leader, (Great applause.) I congrat- 
ulate the Leader upon its large circulation in Canton to-day, (Laughter.) It 
is a great honor to have this large body of citizens from the counties of Alle- 
gheny, Westmoreland, (cries of 'and Washington') yes, and the whole State of 
Pennsylvania (laughter) turn aside from their accustomed occupations to 
pay me this visit, (Applause.) This assemblage thoroughly typifies the 
National idea of a great American commonwealth in this, that it represents the 
equality of all. which lies at the basis of popular government. It emphasizes 
the American spirit. Here are workingmen of every department of industry 
professional men, newspaper men — native born and naturalized citizens all 
equal in privilege and power before the law, all alike interested in the Gov- 
ernment of the country, and all with equal voice in controlling and shaping 
the destiny of the great Republic. Here is a striking protest against the 
unworthy effort on the part of those who would divide our citizenship into 
classes and a striking condemnation of such un-American appeals to passion 
and prejudice, (Cheers,) Nothing can better stamp with falsehood and indig- 
nant disapproval the elTort to array class against class, than this great demon- 
stration before me to-day, I have no sympathy with such appeals — have you ? 
(Cries of 'No, no.') Patriotism is a grander sentiment ; it ennobles but never 
degrades. Instead of seeking to work the masses, it would be worthier on the 
^art of all of us to try to get work for the masses. (Tremendous cheering and 

165 



cries of Hurrah for McKiNLEY.') Workingmen, that you should have called 
on me the day set apart by your great commonwealth to celebrate the worth, 
the dignity and the power of labor, is a great honor, which I duly and gratefully 
appreciate (Renewed cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') Labor Day as a 
National holiday is a high and just recognition of the oldest of all callings, 
one which is at the foundation of industry, and our National progress. 
(Cries of 'That's so.') This is a demonstration of respect to all who labor, an 
honorable distinction worthily bestowed upon those who toil. Labor Day by 
act of Congress is made a legal public holiday in the same way that Christmas, 
the first day of January, the twenty-second day of February, the thirtieth day 
of May and the fourth day of July are now made public holidays. I congrat- 
ulate you that most of the States have accorded to labor a day separate and 
distinct from other holidays, which places it in point of legal recognition with 
the most memorable events of our own and the world's history. With the 
ushering in of the new year on the first of January ; with the birth of Washing- 
ton, the Father of his Country on the twenty-second of February ; with the 
birth of the Republic on the fourth of July ; with the glorious Memorial Day, 
which recognizes the patriotism of the men who died for the Union ; and with 
Christmas, the most cherished of all days to the Christian believer, you have 
a place, workingmen, in the permanent statutes of the United States. 
(Great applause.) You are here to-day not from idle curiosity, but here 
because we are all citizens of a common country, who in a few weeks will be 
called upon through our constitutional forms to determine what party shall 
control the Government for the next four years, and what is more important, 
by what principles and policies such party shall be governed. (Enthusiastic 
cheers and cries of 'We want the Republican Party.') The country by its vote 
this year will either continue the present industrial and financial policies of 
the Government or decree their abandonment. The Republican Party gtands 
to-day as it has always stood, opposed to the continuation of an industrial 
policy which cripples industries at home, robs labor of its just rewards, 
and supplies insufficient revenues to run the Government. (Cries of 
'Good, good.') It stands opposed to any change in our financial policy 
which would put us upon a silver basis and deprive us of the use of both gold 
and silver as currency. (Cries of 'That's right.') Involved in the contest, 
too, is the fundamental question of whether or not we are to have government 
by law. The Republican Party stands now, as always, for the maintenance of 
law and order and domestic tranquility. (Great applause and cries of 'That's 
right, Major.') There are two things which deeply and personally interest the 
workingmen — work and wages. They want steady work at good wages ; they 
are never satisfied with irregular work at inadequate wages. (Cries ©f 'No.') 
They want the American standard applied to both. They are not satisfied with 
steady work at poor wages ; they want regular employment at remunerative 
wages. With steady work they want to be paid in sound money. (Cries of 
'Good, good.') They do not want to lose any part of their hard earnings 
through poor dollars (applause) and they must not be paid in dollars whose 
value can only be ascertained by daily reports such as we used to have in 
the counterfeit detectors in the wild-cat banking days before the war. (Great 
cheering.) Whatever work they now have is paid for in good money, and, 
therefore, no complaint is -made or that score. They are satisfied with 
the money, but they are not satisfied with either the scant work or the 
reduced wages. (Cries of 'That's right. Major.') They are satisfied with the 
present dollar bill, but they are not satisfied with the present tariff bill. 

166 "^ 



(Ti-t'.aendous cheering and blowing of tin horns.) "We have learned from expe^ 
rience that we can not increase work at home by giving it to people abroad 
(cries of 'That's right') and that it is poor policy to keep our own men in idle- 
ness while we furnish employment to men outside our country who owe no 
allegiance to this Government and no fealty to that flag — pointing to the 
American flag. (Great applause.) Washington once said: 'There is no 
doubt of the wisdom of the policy of giving protection and encouragement in 
any proper legislative form to domestic industry.' There is not a workingman 
in the United States who has not learned in the past three years the wisdom 
of Washington's utterance. He appreciates it now more than ever before. 
Now, another experiment is to be tried. (Cries of 'We don't want any more 
experiments.') No, never; I say, never. Your spokesman enunciated the true 
philosophy of the question when he said that no matter how much money was 
coined you could not get it if you did not have work to earn it. (Great cheer- 
ing and cries of 'That's right.') Some people profess the belief that a cheap 
dollar is the best thing for the workingman. Why, the wage earners are all 
creditors and their wages are paid to-day in money whose purchasing power is 
good for one hundred cents to the dollar anywhere in the world. Their dollars 
are as good as anybody's dollars, and equal to everybody's dollars — just as they 
should be. (Applause.) Nobody anywhere gets better ones, but you do not 
have a chance under the present system to get work to earn enough of them. 
(Cries of 'You are right.') If a dollar worth less than one hundred cents is a 
legal tender, the workingmen will never get any other kind. (Cries of 'That's 
right.') They will always get the poorest that will pass current, and then 
when the prices of the products they buy advance, who will be cheated ? (Loud 
cries of 'The workingmen.') Who will raise the workingmen's wages to meet 
the rise in the products he buys? (Cries of 'Nobody ; give us a Republican 
administration with McKinley for President,' followed by cheering and blow- 
ing of horns.) He can not do it unaided ; he does not control the pay roll of 
his employer, and he knows from experience that the last thing to be advanced 
and the hardest thing to have advanced, are his wages. (Cries of 'That's right, 
Major.') We might just as well understand that we can not fix by law the wages 
of labor; that is a matter of mutual contract between employer and employe. 
But we can fix by law the kind of money in which wages are paid, and we will 
never decree that they shall be paid in anything short of the best dollars in 
purchasing power that are recognized throughout the civilized world. (Tre- 
mendous cheering and blowing of horns.) When a man is out of a job he is 
usually out of money (laughter) and to live he must draw upon his savings, if 
he has any. Is not that so, workingmen of Pennsylvania? (Cries of 'Yes.') 
If not upon his savings, then upon his credit. What the idle workingman 
wants is a job that means money to him. The mints, if they were thrown 
wide open to the coinage of every character of metal and were multiplied a 
hundred fold in capacity, would neither furnish the workingman a job, 
restore his exhausted savings, nor give him credit. (Great applause and. cries 
of 'You are right. Major.') Nothing, my fellow citizens, will accomplish that 
but work — work at fair wages — and that will only come through confidence, 
restored by a wise financial and industrial policy. (Cheers and cries of "Hurrah 
for McKinley.') Remember that money is never willingly idle any more tha 
labor is willingly idle. If money is ever idle, it is because it feai 
loss. The way to dispel that fear is to insure business stability ariL 
confidence. (Cries of 'That's right.') We can not have work if we do not h^e 
wealth Bomewhere; and we can not have wealth without work, for labor is 

167 



til',' fjimdation c." Y.-cr.ll".:.- (Great applause.) The power to get money— I 
d ;i'L care what business we are in— depends upon whether the man who owns 
the money needs what we have and wants what we have more than he needs or 
wants his money. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') If wehaveour labor 
we can get pay for it if somebody wants it who can pay for it, and nobody ever 
wants it unless it is necessary to have it for his convenience or comfort or to 
produce something by which he can make a profit out of his money. (Great 
applause.) If you want to borrow money your ability to get it is measured by 
the confidence the possessor has in your ability and disposition to repay it. 
This is true, whatever kind of money we have, and there is another thing we 
ought to remember and that is, h-3e silver at a ratio of sixteen to one, or any 
other ratio, wiU not repeal the great law of supply and demand. (Cheers.) It 
is a grave error to suppose that you can enhance values by diminishing the 
value of money— that you can increase the value of anything by changing its 
measure. You can no more do that than you can increase the quantity by 
diminishing the measure. Garfield uttered a great truth, when, speaking for 
the resumption of specie payments, he said: 'In the name of every man who 
wants his own when he has earned it, I demand that we do not make the wages 
of the poor man to shrivel in his hands after he has earned them (applause) but 
that his money shall be made better and better until the plowholder's money 
shall be as good as the bondholder's money (cries of 'Good') until our standard 
is one, and tliere is no longer one money for the rich and another for the poor.' 
(Great applause.) "Wliat Garfield so eloquently advocated was executed by 
the resumption of specie payments in 1879. The dollar of promise became the 
coin of fulfillment ; and every doUar we have in circulation to-day is as good as 
any other dollar in every mart and market of the world. (Tremendous ap- 
plause.) This is the way it is now, and this is the way it shall be forever if the 
people place the Republican Party in control of every branch of our Federal 
Government. (Applause and cries of 'They will do it,' and blowing of horns.) 
The preservation of tlie silver dollar is as indispensable to oar National honor 
and our public faith as it is to the men who work in factories and who toil in 
the fields. (Applause.) I thank you, my countrymen, for this generous and 
gracious call. One of the greatest sources of comfort to me in this contest is 
the assurance that I have behind me so many of the workingmen of the United 
States. (Loud applause.) It will give me sincere pleasure to meet and greet 
each one of you personally." 

THE NEWSPAPER MEN OF OHIO. 

The Ohio Republican Editorial Association held its annual meeting at 
Canton on Tuesday, September 8th. It was attended by editors and publishers 
from all sections of the State, whose business brings them in close touch with 
the political situation of their localities. The greetings they brought to Major 
McKixLEY were most gratifying and assured him of success almost unprece- 
dented in the history of the State. The sessions were held in Elk's Hall, 
Dannemiller Block. Joiix Hopley, of the Bucyrus Journal, President of the 
Association, was in the chair and the other oflicers in their respective stations 
as follows: Vice President, Richard B. Brown, of the Zanesville Courier; 
Secretary, C. B. McCoy, of the Coshocton Age ; and the Treasurer, S. S. Kxab- 
ENSHi-E, of the Toledo Blade, Tliore were a hundred editors at the first session 
and others came in as the meeting progressed. After organization regrets were 
read from a number of prominent journalists who had been invited to be 

168 



present. Among them, WinxELAW Reid, of th3 Nc.v York Tribune; Horace 
White, of the Kew York Evening Post ; and Robert P. Porter, of the Cleveland 
"World. Entertaining addresses were made by H. P. Boydex, of the Cincinnati 
Commercial-Tribune ; Samtel G. MoCluke, of the Ohio State Journal, and S. S. 
KxABEXSHUE, of the Toledo Blade, occupying the time until noon. The after- 
noon session was occujiied by Charles Emory Smith, editor of the Philadelphia 
Press, who made a most able, eloquent and practical address. Among those in 
attendance were : S. S. Kxabexshue, of the Toledo Blade ; Leo Hirsch, Super- 
visor of Public Printing and editor of the Columbus Daily Express, and his son 
Edward Hirsch, also of the Express ; H. P. Crouse, of the Morning Repub- 
lican, Findlay ; J. G. Paxtox, the Courier, Kent ; Jonx P. Locke, Tiffin Tribune ; 
"WiLsox A. KoRxs, Tribune, New Philadelphia; Joseph I. Brittaix, Reveille 
Echo, East Palestine ; J. H. Simms, Tribune, East Liverpool ; W. R. Eversole, 
Fairfield County Republican, Lancaster ; C. J. Thompson, Republican, Defiance ; 
J. L. McIlvaixe, Tuscarawas Advocate, New Philadelphia; L. C. Sedgwick, 
Times, Martin's Ferry ; George Redway, Republican Leader, Lisbon; PieTro 
Cuxeo, Republican, Upper Sandusky; E. M. Guxsaclus, Times, London; E.L. 
McMiLLEx,BelmontChronicle, St. Clairsville; George B. Frease, Repository, 
Canion; E. R. Alderman, Daily Register, Marietta; Thomas G. Browx, Ironton 
Republican ; E. E. Wright, Youngstown Telegram; Joseph A. Howells, Senti- 
nel, Jeiierson ; Samuel G. McClure, manager Ohio State Journal, Columbus; J. 
Harry Rabbitts, Republic-Times, Springfield; R. B. Brown, Courier, Zanes- 
ville ; C. B. McCoy, Coshocton Age ; F. A. Douglas, Salem News ; J. M. Ickes, 
Newark Tribune ; J. N. Coxxer, Coshocton Age ; William Ritezel, Warren 
Chronicle; Edward S. Wilson, Ironton Register ; and Thomas M, Beer, Ash- 
land Gazette. At the conclusion of Mr. Smith's address, the visitors formed in 
line and marched to the McKinley home to pay their personal respects to the 
Republican nominee for President. They were cordially greeted by Major 
McKixley, who made an eloquent response to the spokesman, the venerable 
Johx Hoplev, of the Bucyrus Journal. Mr. Hopley, in presenting the visitors, 
said: 

"Major McKixley: You have so often and so acceptably spoken in each of. 
the several counties from which these my professional brethren come ; and you 
have, during the four years of your residence at Columbus, met so many of them, 
that you are better acquainted with them than I am myself, and therefore I am 
denied the pleasure of introducing them to you. Neither can I, in their name 
pledge you their most earnest support, because for twenty years you have had that 
and as each year has left brighter and brighter examples of your statesmanship 
and patriotism, so it has, if possible, increased that zealous support which it is 
both our pi-ide and our patriotic duty to give you. Among those who make the 
name of Ohio illustrious, you have lived before us for years an ideal Buckeye, 
the pride of our State, and now that the Republican Party of the Nation has 
adopted you, we may be excused if, in the exuberance of our triumph, we 
■come to most fervently and joyously bid you godspeed. AVe have heard from 
many of those heretofore regai-ded as the most distinguished leaders of our 
opponents, that the contest this year at the ballot box is as important as was 
the fearful strife a third of a century ago, and many now, as they did then, 
prefer the safety of their country to the success of their party. These old 
line leaders of the true Democratic Party are as one with us in the main issue 
e: th? contest— the preservnt:(;n of our National honor as Ihey put it, and as we 
regard it, tlierestora) ion of public confidence; for the intense political strug- 
gle now in progress, involving so many questions, may be condensed into this 

160 



one object, to restore public confidence, or to preserve National honor. This 
being gained, all the several other issues would be decided by the statesmen of 
the Nation, undisturbed by demagogues appealing to passion and greed, to 
selfishness and suffering, which would speedily lead to lawlessness and anarchy. 
The policy of our party from 1873 to 1893 gave us twenty years of such prosper- 
ity that the Nation increased in wealth at the rate of a million dollars a day. 
The policy of our opponents has given us three years of such depression, that 
the Nation has increased its public debt half a million dollars a day. If we are 
true to ourselves and labor for success, surely the people will not choose wrongly 
between two such experiences. While the Nation was increasing in wealth at 
the I'ate of a million dollars a day, public confidence was natural, but who can 
have faith in a system that has resulted in the increase of the public debt by 
half a million dollars every day with no prospect of improvement. However 
urgent the necessity of public confidence, certainty of the future is absolutely 
essential to its return. The success of free silver would make the future 
more uncertain than ever, and the return of public confidence in the presence 
of such uncertainty would be more hopeless than ever. But the success of 
'honest money and the chance to earn it' would immediately give to the Nation 
a certain future, and on the fourth of November thousands of contracts involv- 
ing millions of dollars now awaiting the result, would then be closed, and all 
over the Nation as the first fruits of that success, would be a revival of activity 
even as the returning sun in spring wakes torpid nature into bright and beauti- 
ful life. Among the amazing triumphs of modern science is the wonderful fact 
that, at a given signal, a child a thousand miles distant, can set into instanta- 
neous motion acres of ponderous machinery, by the pressure of a button. The 
people now await the night of the third of November when the wires will give 
the signaLthat will send a thrill through the Nation awakening public confidence 
and setting in motion the millions of men now idle and the millions of capital 
now dormant, throughout the three millions of square miles of this, our vast 
inheritance, surpassmg in richness the promised land of God's chosen people. 
Then will the time again come'when all over our rich inheritance the furnace 
fires will be beacons lighting the Nation to prosperity ; when whirring wheels, 
ringing anvils, the hum of factories and the deep bass of ponderous machinei-y, 
will unite in one grand anthem to tlie glory of labor and the prosperity of the 
Nation. Then will descend upon you, sir, the highest glory of human greatness, 
for in the words of England's most beautiful poet it will be your immortal 
destiny 

'To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land 
And read your history in a Nation's eyes.' " 



(Great applause.) 



Major McKinley's Response. 



"Mr. President and Gentlemen op the Eeptjblican Press Association of 
Ohio : I have been deeply moved by the gracious words of your venerable 
spokesman. You could not have chosen one of your members to give 
expression to the sentiments of your Association more pleasing to me than my 
old and honored friend, Mr. Hopley, whose efforts in behalf of the Republican 
tarty have been unceasing for more than forty years. (Applause.) Defeat 
has never discouraged him ; nor victory unduly elated him. Indeed, I think he 
is at his best, and does his most effective work when the party to wliich he 
belongs is under temporary defeat. I can only wish for him coniinued good 
health and the lull measure of those blessings which he has so much enjoyed 

170 



during his long and eventful career. (Applause.) It gives ne great pleasure, 
gentlemen, to vrelcome you one and all to my home. I feel sure that you are 
familiar with Canton and need no assurances from me as to the cordiality of its 
hospitality. You have done Canton a great honor by your visit, and for one I 
highly appi'eciate it, as I know all our citizens do. Canton, just now, I judge, 
is a very fair newspaper town, and no newspaper writer or publisher ever comes 
here who is not warmly welcomed, whether he gets what he comes for or not 
(laughter) and no matter what he may say when he goes away. (Renewed 
laughter and applause.) General Sherman and some of our other good officers 
used to have a way during the war of sending certain newspaper men out of 
camp occasionally and perhaps often wished to send them 'across the lines.' 
"We have no sectional lines now. (Applause.) They have been happily obliter- 
ated, and no part of this gi'eat Republic can be justly called 'the enemy's 
country.' (Great applause. ) Newspaper men, like everybody else, can go freely, 
speak freely, and write freely on every spot of gi-ound beneath our glorious 
flag. I feel that I know something of the Republican editors of Ohio. I can not 
recall a time that they have not been faithful and friendly; nor can I forget 
that in some of the closest campaigns in the State their intelligent and unfal- 
tering support have brought us the victory. This year they are more in earn- 
est, more aggressive, moi-e thoroughly efficient than they have ever been before. 
They appreciate the over-mastering importance of the issues involved in the 
present contest and are leading, gloriously leading, in the educational work 
which is indispensable to a pi-oper understanding of the questions which divide 
us and right action ultimately at the polls. (Applause.) Gentlemen, it is a 
post of singular honor which you occupy to-day. I can not remember any 
period, save and except during the war, when the Republican press so signally 
represented National! honor and National welfare as now. (Great applause.) 
It is not often given to a political party, as it is this year given to our party to 
stand between National honor and dishonor ; public faith and repudiation ; and 
order and disquietude. It is the good fortune of the Republican Party to stand 
in this contest for what is best in govei-nment, for what is patriotic in citizen- 
ship, and what tends best to the support of the financial integrity of the Gov- 
ernment, its credit and its curi*ency. It is a vast responsibility to put upon 
any party, but the Republican Party is not without trial amidst grave respon- 
sibilities. It has performed supreme duty before; it has filled great trusts 
before. It has discharged them always with wisdom, courage and fidelity, and it 
will discharge the new ones, too, with an honest and unfaltering purpose to 
serve the best interests of the people and all the people. (Applause.) For- 
tunately, in this contest, the Republican Party is not alone in the support of 
the Republican cause. Conservative men of all parties stand with it. It 
numbers among its strongest allies many of the powerful Democratic news- 
papers. East and West, which are doing yeoman services for patriotism and 
National honor. (Applause.) They are welcome, thrice welcome, and the 
country owes them a debt of gratitude for their unflinching loyalty to country 
as against party, for sound money and public morals. (Great applause.) This 
is a year, gentlemen, of political contention without personal bitterness. 
Intelligence and investigation are taking the place of passion and partisanship. 
Prejudice cuts little figure in a crisis like this. "We must not indulge in 
aspersion or crimination against those who have differed from us in the past, 
but who are now with us in patriotic endeavor to preserve the good faith of the 
country and enforce public and private honesty. (Applause.) We must not 
drive anybody out of camp, but welcome everybody in. You doubtless have 

171 



grown weary of being told of the greatness, power and value of the press 
so many times styled the 'preserver of our liberties' and 'the hope of 
mankind.' It was Bulwek, I think, who commanded, ' Take away the sword. 
States can be saved without it; bring the pen.' This a is year for press and 
pen. The sword has been sheathed. The only force now needed is the 
force of reason, and the only power to be invoked is that of intelligence 
and patriotism. (Great applause.) Our people have always extended to the 
press the most generous patronage and accorded it the gi-eatest deference, so 
that the press has grown with our grow^th and advanced with our advancement. 
There are nearly as many newspapers and periodicals published in the United 
States as in all the rest of the world beside. To me the modern newspaper is 
so vast and comprehensive that I can never contemplate its possibilities with- 
out becoming both interested and enthusiastic in the subject. Why, to be a 
real, capable and worthy journalist, wise, honorable and efficient, is to attain 
the highest plane of human opportunity and usefulness! (Applause.) To love 
and proclaim truth, for truth's sake ; to disseminate knowledge and useful infor- 
mation ; to correct misimpressions; to enlighten the misinformed; to 'feed an 
expectant and anxious people' with the occurences of the world daily — indeed, 
almost hourly ; to discover and correct abuses ; to fairly and honorably advocate 
a great cause ; in short, to mold and direct public opinion, which is always the 
mission of journalism, is surely the noblest of professions. (Great applause.) 
Poor it may be in some parts of the world ; despised it may be by the intoler- 
ant and ignorant everywhere ; but degraded it never can be so long as its aim 
is the good of the people. Ohio has always been prominent in the field of jour- 
nalism ; that she has been prominent in politics, too, the press can fairly claim 
her full share, and is entitled to no little credit, for our long line of deserving 
public servants. I need not remind you of them. You kndw well the glorious 
history of the State and its contributions to the country in every field of states- 
manship. The press of Ohio has proudly held its own in the march of journal- 
ism. The younger men— and there are many of them before me to-day— have 
high models before them. Their predecessors were honest in conviction, pow- 
erful in argument, and contributed much to make our glorious State what it is, 
and our civilization and citizenship the best in the world. (Applause.) From 
your ranks have gone forth some of the ablest journalists the world has ever 
known, whose influence and learning have impressed other States also, and 
enriched the literature of the whole country. Some of the old editors still 
reriain wielding the pen of power — may their lives be lengthened and their 
splendid example be emulated by their younger colleagues! (Applause.) I 
congratulate you upon the high rank of the press of Ohio and wish for you still 
greater achievements in your chosen work and in broader fields. You never 
had an opportunity for higher usefulness than now and you never had a 
greater opportunity for the wisest use of your best faculties than in the support 
of the principles and policies wliich are involved in the contest now upon us. 
I congratulate you upon the great work you are doing and appreciate more than 
I can tell you the kindness and courtesy of this call." (Great applause.) 

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE. 

Shortly before 9:00 o'clock, Friday morning, September 11th, a special 
train of Wagner cars, handsomely decorated with portraits of McKinley and 
HoB.^RT, the American flag, and appropriate mottoes, bearing a large delegation 
.from St. Albans, Vermont, pulled into the Cleveland, Terminal and Valley 

172 



depot at Canton, Ohio. Among the mottoes were "Vermont for McKixley, 
S9,000;" "Vermont to Canton, September 9-12, 1896;" "Vermont the Star 
that Never Sets ;" "What's the Matter with Hanna ;" and "Vermont Moves to 
make it Unanimous." The party had left St. Albans on Wednesday night, 
crossed New York on Thursday, with frequent stops and much speech-malting, 
coming via the New York Central to Buffalo and thence via the Lake Shore 
road to Cleveland, where the party spent the night of September 10th at the 
Centennial, commemorative of Commodore Perry'.s great victory on Lake Erie, 
and thence to Canton early next morning on the Valley railroad. It consisted 
of the following prominent and representative citizens : Hon. Ira R. Allen, Fair 
Haven, Senator ; Hon. Herbert Brainerd, St. Albans, f x-Senator ; John Branch, 
St. Albans; Isaac Baldwin, AVells River; Hon. E. L. Bates, Bennington, Judge 
Advocate General; Hon, O. M. Barber, Arlington, Railroad Commissioner; 
Hon. Henry Ballard, Burlington, ex-Senator; Hon. A. B. Beman, Fairfax, 
Senator; F. G. Butterfield, Derby Line; E. M. Brown, Sheldon; Col. George 
T. Guilds, St. Albans, Member Republican National Committee; James 
Aldrich, E. J. Bagley, Bradford ; L. M. Bixby, Montpelier ; D. S. Conant and 
Hon. A. D. Collins, Burlington ; Henry L. Clark, Castleton, ex-Senator ; Hon. 
L. Bart Cross, Chairman Second District Committee ; George W. Chillson, 
Frank M. Corry, Montpelier; W. E. Curtis, Lowell; W. D. Chandler, St. 
Albans; J. K. Curtis, of Georgia; T. M. Deal, St. Albans, Senator-elect; 
Charles Deal, St. Albans ; A. F. Durkee, Sheldon, Senator-elect ; Hon. Nelson 
W. FiSK, Isle La Motte. Lieutenant Governor-elect; C. S. Forbes, St. Albans, 
Secretary Vermont Republican League ; Hon. Josiah Grout, Derby, Governor- 
elect; Frank L. Green, St. Albans, Chairman Republican Town Committee; 
S. C. Green, St. Albans; A. L. Graves, Manchester; Hon. Walter E. Howard, 
Middlebury, ex-Senator; W. Farrington, S. W. Flimm, St. Albans; S. L. 
GRIFFITH: Mt. Darby; E. Goodnough, Montpelier; W. G. Higbee, Proctor; 
Col. Henry W, Hall, Burlington, Aide-de-camp on Governor Woodbury's staff ; 
Hugh Henry"- Chester, Judge of Probate ; Henry W. Hatch, St. Albans, 
Chairman Board of Selectmen; O. L. Hines, of St. Albans; Hon. J. N. Jexney, 
St. Albans", Surgeon General, V. N. G. ; O. B. Johnson, St. Albans; Barney F. 
Kelley, St. Albans, Sheriff of Franklin County; William Landon, St. Albans; 
Joseph Lebeau, St. Albans ; W. C. Landon, Rutland ; J. K. Lynde, Williams- 
town ; Z M. Mansur, Island Pond, Lieutenent Governor ; Joseph G. MoCul- 
LOUGH, North Bennington ; M. J. Maloney, Richford ; Olin Merrill, Enosburgh 
Falls, Chairman Republican State Committee ; N. R. Miller, Shelburne ; E. R. 
Morse, Proctor, President Young Men's Republican Club of Vermont; J. D. 
Miller, Wallingford ; J-. A. Merrill, Rutland ; C. W. Mussey, Rutland ; W. T. 
Merritt, St. Albans; S. 0. Noble, St. Albans; Hon. E. J. Ormsbee, Brandon, 
ex-Governor ; Hon. Redfield Proctor, Proctor, United States Senator; Hon. 
H. Henry Powers, Morrisville, Member of Congress; Hiram E. Perkins, St. 
Albans, Village Trustee; H. E. Parker, Bradford, Member State Committee; 
M. P. Perley, Enosburg Falls'; B. B. Perkins, St. Albans ; M. W. Rounds, Rich- 
ford ; Hon. George W. Randall, Waterbury, ex-Senator; E. J. Ranslow, 
Swanton ; Hon. John P. Rich, Swanton, Representative ; Hon. Mason S. Stone, 
State Superintendent of Education ; E. C. Spooner, Brandon ; Edward Simonds, 
Burlington ; F. C. Smith, St. Albans; Hon. F. S. Stranahan, St. Albans, ex- 
Lieutenant Governor ; John M. Stearns, Rutland ; Arthur F. Sabin, St. Albans ; 
George E. Stebbins, Sheldon; E. C. Tuttle, Rutland, Director State Prison; 
Ckauncey Temple, St. Albftfis, County Judge-elect ;E. D. Welling, Bennington, 
Member of State Committee ; Hon. E.G. Woodworth, Arlington, ex-Represent- 

173 



tative; C. C. Warren, yratei-bury; S. II. "Wood, St. Albans, ex-Deputy Col- 
ector of Customs; T. E. Waugh, St. Albans; Capt. George O. AVebster, St. 
Albans; and Hon. Urban A. Woodbury, Governor, The delegation was met at 
the depot by the Canton Troop and Grand Army Band, the latter having been 
engaged in advance by the delegation. Pinned to the lapel of the coat of each 
visitor was a badge bearing the inscription "Vermont for McKixley, 39,000, 
Canton, September 9-12." A miniature American flag surmounted this with 
small pictures of McKixley and Hobart. In each hat band was a sprig of the 
famous Vermont cedar, resembling the Ohio pine, and each visitor wore a neck- 
tie of golden hue, emblematic of the sentiment for sound money. At the 
McKinley residence Hoa. Olix Merrill, Chairman of the Vermont State Com- 
mittee presided and in a few well chosen words introduced Col. George T. 
Childs, Member of the National Republican Committee for Vermont, who 
spoke in behalf of the visitors. Their appearance created the gi-eatest enthu- 
siam and elicted hearty applause from the people who crowded the streets 
along the line of march. He said : 

"Major McKixley: Although the State conventions of both the great 
political parties in Vermont declared unequivocally in favor of the gold stand- 
ard, the action of the Democratic National Convention at Chicago in demand- 
ing the free and unlimited coinage of silver, and selecting as the standard bear- 
er of the party an earnest advocate of that financial policy, forced the Republi- 
cans to carry on their campaign along unfamiliar lines. The leaders of the 
party were confronted with frequent and constantly increasing reports of large 
defections from their ranks and large accretions to the forces of Democracy by 
reason of the financial issue. They knew the voters of Vermont were honest, 
favored the payment of every honest debt with an honest dollar, would follow 
the way where honor led, but the question at issue was comparatively new and 
the people demanded a discussion of it to the exclusion of other matters of 
National import. They organized for victory, and on the first day of Septem- 
ber, by a majority double that given the Republican Gubernatorial candidate 
four years ago, a majority larger by 10,000 than ever before given a candidate 
for public office in the history of the State (applause) the voice of the good old 
State again rings out, clear, emphatic, reverberating along her mountain tops 
and resounding through her valleys, echoing from Maine to the Golden Gate, 
from the Lakes upon our Northern borders to the Gulf whose waters wash her 
Southern shores. (Applause.) In William McKixley we recognize the first 
choice of the Republicans of Vermont for the Pi'esidency of this mighty Nation. 
(Applause.) We have journeyed from our homes in our beloved State to bring 
to you, sir, the gi-eetings of her Republican voters, because, although the issues 
upon which they were called upon to pass ten days ago transcend all questions of 
personality, yet the victory won for the cause of honest finance by them does 
in some measure partake of a personal character. As you were the first choice 
of a large majority of them, as you have been declared the first choice of all 
of them, we bring you something more than the tidings of a political triumph. 
(Applause.) And not alone are we permitted to speak in the name of the Re- 
publicans of Vermont. We bring as well the cordial greetings of 5,000 free 
men of the State who have followed loyally, unselfishly, manfully and proudly, 
the standard of the Democratic Party through more than a third of a century 
of uninterrupted defeat ; 5,000 honest, earnest, patriotic Democrats of the dear 
old Commonwealth, unite with nearly 50,000 of her Republican children in 
declaring, as between financial honor, the rule of l?iw, the safety of republican 
institutions, and repudiation, the dread and fear of revolution, William 

174 



McKiNLEY, of Ohio, is their first choice for President. (Apphiuse.) AVhile we are 
proud to place the tribute of Vermont upon the brow of honor and acknowledge 
a just pride in the overwhelming victoryof last Tuesday week, we can, if 
needs must be, say for Vermont, as Lowell said of her sister commonwealth, 

■Massachusetts : 

' But of old deeds she need not brag, 
How she broke sword and fetter, 
Fliug up again the dear old flag. 
She'll do yet more and better.' " 

(Great applause. ) 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Chairman and My Fellow Citizens: I bid you welcome, hearty 
welcome, from an overflowing heart, to my State, my city, and my home. I 
would be unjust to my own feelings, and irresponsive to the kind sentiments 
uttered by your spokesman, if I permitted to pass unobserved the fact that in 
the preliminary contest for the Eepublican nomination for President, the State 
of Vermont gave me her united vote. (Applause.) The Green Mountain State 
is endeared to us all by tradition and history, in song and story, but above all 
in good work manifest in glorious results. Whether in the days of the Revolu- 
tion, when her hardy mountaineers repulsed the best soldiers of Europe; in the 
days of the Rebellion, when her soldiers displayed the same resolute courage at 
Big Bethel, Crampton's Gap, Savage's Station, or Gettysburg, or in the no less 
important and decisive conflicts in civil life, the people of Vermont have always 
been true to the best ideals and highest obligations of duty, and active, distin- 
guished and useful in every great emergency. No one will deny to them a glorious 
part in achieving the independence of the Colonies. None will question that they 
did much to check the aggi'essions of human slavery, and had high place in the 
final triumph of the Union in the hour of its gi'eatest peril. (Applause.) Nor 
in our later trials will any doubt that the example and voice of Vermont have 
always been most potential on the side of justice, honor, and right. (Cheers.) 
Some of the newspapers have asked me to interpret the result of the elections 
in A^ermont on September first, but it seems to me that they are their own best 
interpreter. (Laughter and applause.) Tiiey have simply declared what every 
student of your history must already have discovered, that your thoughtful and 
patriotic citizens are as true as ever — aye, truer than ever — to the tenets of 
good morals, good politics, and good government. (Great applause.) They 
have shown by their ballots, by a greater preponderance than ever, that they 
are more devoted to the honor of the Government, to the maintenance of law 
and order, and the restoration of that sound, wise and economic system which 
has always been our chief pride and greatest strength, thail^at any previous * 
period in our eventful history. (Applause.) The value of your example is cer- 
tainly greater than ever in the past as the issues on which your victory was 
won are the same as those which now engage the attention of the entire 
country. The free silver orators and organs of Vermont illy concealed, if they 
did not positively assert, what is being proclaimed everywhere, that their 
solicitude is the relief of those who might temporarily profit by a degraded cur- 
rency, no matter at what sacrifice of the plainest precepts of good morals. In 
no case and at no point do they propose a system to pay our National and pri 
vate obligations on the plain old fashioned principles of good faith and lionesty, 
which have always heretofore distinguished the American people. (Applause.) 
Practically admitting that the effect of free, unlimited and independent 

175 



coinage of silver would be an immense loss to the savings and resources 
of our people, and that its adoption vv^ould reduce the plane of our social and 
industrial condition, they yet seriously propose that we shall risk this 
hazardous experiment. Vermont has said in tones that can not be misunder- 
stood, that she will have nothing to do with so fatal an experiment. (Great 
applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good'.) Indeed, they are urging us to attempt 
by legislation to make fifty cents worth of silver pass current as a legal tender 
one-hundred cent dollar, good for all public and private obligations. The mere 
statement of the proposition ought to lead to its instant rejection. We can not 
by law make every man honest, but we certainly will never make a law 
encouraging them to be dishonest. (Applause.) To me the question of 
protection as against free trade is a question of humanity, the voice of labor 
pleading for its own ; and the question of honest money as against free silver 
is a question affecting public and private integrity, honor and good faith, 
and its success would be a blot on our hitherto spotless credit, (Applause 
and cries of 'Good.') Obscure the real issues and it finally resolves into 
that, but will it prevail? No, I answer, forever no. (Cheers.) The 
American people as a Nation like those of the State of Vermont are entirely 
above so unworthy an imputation. (Applause.) A people that could as a 
weak and struggling confederacy of less than five millions inhabitants emerge 
from an eight years' war of blight and destruction and proceed immediately 
to gather up and pay off their enormous Revolutionary debt, including the 
independent debt of all the States, aggregating $135,000,000, or $27 per capita 
at the time of its assumption, will not falter at the present temptation. 
(Cheers and cries of 'That's right;' 't^ood, good.') A people that could tax 
themselves most heavily to equip and maintain the armies and navies of the 
Union and conduct the most extensive and expensive war in history will not 
turn their backs upon the soldiers of that war, nor seek to pay ^;heir pensions in 
dollars worth only half their face value. (Great cheering and cries of 'Good.') 
A people who emerged from that war with an interest-bearing debt of $2,382,- 
000,000, or $70 per capita for our entire population in 1865, will not now, after 
having paid three-fourths of that great debt, ever seek, directly or indirectly, 
to repudiate one dollar of it, or cheapen tlie coin of payment. (Applause and 
cries of 'Good, Major.') A people, I say, who proceeded in good faith to pay off 
that debt with such unparalleled rapidity that it was estimated in 1888 that up 
to that time, it had been so great that we had paid $123 for every minute of 
evei'y hour of every day of every year from 1865 to 1888, will not now palter, 
bargain or scheme to defraud any creditor of the Government whoever or 
wherever he may be. (Tremendous applause and cries of 'Good,' and 'Hurrah 
for McKiNLEY.') A people who had the satisfaction .of seeing that debt reduced 
to $585,000,000 ^ March 3, 1893, at the close of the splendid Administration. 
of President Harrison (applause) will readily and quickly meet both the 
remainder of the old debt, and all that' has been made since (laughter) 
and pay it all off, principal and interest, in the best money of the world, and 
the money recognized by all civilized nations to be the best at the time of pay- 
ment (loud applause) — just as President Jackson paid off the last of the Revolu- 
tionary debt sixty years or more after the first of it had been contracted. This, 
my fellow citizens of Vermont, is the faith that the election in your 
State inspires in me; but that is not all. In that verdict I see the un- 
unalterable determination of the people of the United States, for whom she 
had the honor first to speak, to restore the protective tariff system once more 
to our statute books. (Great cheering.) Vermont is an agricultural State.^ 

176 



but her keen, sagacious and honest farmers know full well the value of protec- 
tion and her twin sister reciprocity. (Applause and cries of "That's right.') 
They have profited by experience. They have examined both their stock books 
and their store books — and they have had plenty of time to do it (laughter) in 
the past three years, and have learned that their products have been worth, 
less than at any time for a long series of years. The farmers of your Stats 
want a protective tariff (applause and cries of 'That's right, they do') and they 
mean to have it. (Great cheering.) So, too, will our farmers everywhere de- 
cide on both these issues. They are naturally conservative and their unerring 
common sense and comnton honesty will lead them quickly to detect the fal- 
lacies of free silver just as they have already learned the fallacies of free trade. 
(Applause.) Citizens of Vermont, I congratulate you on the example and 
courage of the Green Mountain boys who fought at Bennington and Gettysburg. 
(Applause.) I congratulate you, too, on the long line of eminent and worthy 
men you have contributed to the National galaxy ; on the great worth of your 
present distinguished public servants both in State and National councils ; on 
the many great names you have given to literature, arts and sciences, and 
especially to mechanics and invention. But above all, I congratulate you upon 
the high character not only of the population you have sent to the other 
States, but on that which you have kept at home. (Applause and cries of 
'Good.') Your devotion to your best interests, your love of social order and 
respect for law, your love of liberty and the enlightened principles of free 
government come to us of the newer States as a most gracious inspiration and 
positive strength. No poor words of mine could express the debt of gratitude 
I feel is so richly due you in the pending contest. Your acts speak louder than 
words and point the way to grander results. (Cheers.) You have set the pace; 
you have lifted on high the standard of public honor. I appreciate most highly 
your call upon me at such expense, discomfort and trouble, but I value far 
more the proud services you have rendered your country in this emergency in 
her history. (Great appla*use.) Fellow citizens, I assure you that it gives me 
pleasure to welcome you here and to my home. I can not find words to express 
my appreciation of the courtesy and cordiality of this call, can only say that it 
will afford me sincere pleasure to meet and greet each one of you personally." 
(Tremendous cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') 

At the conclusion of Major MoKinley's address brief, eloquent and timely 
speeches were made by Senator Proctcr, Governor Woodbury, Congressman 
Powers and Major Josiah Grout, the Governor-elect, which were heartily 
applauded by the great crowd of people who had gathered in honor of the 
occasion. A double quartet consisting of Messrs. B, B. and Sherry Perkins, 
Dr. John Sheerar, C. H. Anderson, A. R. Sabin, F. T. E. Sisson, Edward 
Crampton and L. L. B. Best, also make a gi-eat hit by rendering a song compos- 
ed by S. E. Royce, of St. Albans, for the trip, as follows: 

We Want yer, McKinley, Yes, we Do. 

The mills are a-stoppin', an' the markets are a-droppin', 
Au' we want yer, McKinley, yes, we do ; 
• The last four years of Grover. thank the Lord, are almost over, 

' An' our hearts are a-turnia'. Mack, to you. 
We've been thiukin' till we're sad, of the good old times we had 

Up to eighteen ninety-two. 
An' you see we do not care If 'twas called a " rob1)er tariff," 
We want yer, McKinley, yes, we do. 

177 



CiiOECs : Wo want ycr, McKiiiley. yerf, we want yer miq,hty had ; 
A liity-three cent doUiir— well, you bet it makes us mad. 
McKinleyand Protection, 
That is our selection, 
An' we want yer, McKinley, yes, we want yer, want yer, want yer — 
An' we want yer, McKinley, yes, we DO. 
When the merchants are a-failin', an' Uncle Sam is ailiu', 

Then we want yer, McKinley, yes, we do. 
When Bryan's mouth is workin',an' Sewall is a-smirkin'. 

Then our hearts are a-turnin'. Mack, to you. 
When the mortgage is a-growin', an' we can't pay what we're owin', 

Then we want yer, McKinley, yes, we do. 
When the Popolists are yawpin', an' George Freddy is a-floppin'. 
Then we want yer, McKinley, yes, we do. 

Choeus : We want yer, McKinley, yes, we want yer mighty bad ; 

These Demo-Popo-cratic times are the worst we ever had— 
So come to us a-flyin'. 
For you we are a-sighin', 
'Cos we want yer. McKinley, yes, we want yer, want yer, want yer — 
'Cos we want yer, McKinley, yes, we DO. 
When the banks are a-bustin', and the furnaces a-rustin'. 

Then we want yer, McKinley, yes, we do. 
When Bayard is a-chinin', an' the Britishers a-grinnin'. 

Then our hearts are a-turnin, Mack, to you. 
When the Spanish are a-strainin', an' the Cubans are a-gainin'. 

Then we want yer, McKinley yes, we do. 

When the Eagle is a moultin', an' Teller is a-boltin'," 

Then we want yer, McKinley yes, we do. 

Choeus: We want yer. McKinley, yes, we want yer mighty bad; 
A fifty-three cent dollar — well, you bet it makes us mad. 
McKinley and Protection, 
That is our selection. 
An' we want yer, McKinley, yes, we want yer, want yer, want yer — 
An' we want yer, McKinley, yes, we DO. 
When the business is a-dyiu'. and the tungry children cryiu'. 

Then we want yer, McKinley, yes, we do. 
When the Democrats are a-scrappin', an' the Anarchists a-yappin' 

Then our hearts are a-turnin. Mack, to you. 
When the silver men are a schemin', an' Davy Hill's a-dreamiu'. 

Then we want yer. McKinley yes, we do. 
When the Donkey's tail's a-swishin' , and the President's a-Sshin'. 
Then we want yer, McKinley, yes, we do. 

Chorus: We want yer, McKinley, yes, we want yer mighty bad ; 

These Demo-Popo-cratic times are the worst we ever had — 
Come to us a-flyin'. 
For you we are a-sighin', 
'Cos we want yer, McKinley, yes, we want yer, want yor, want yer — 
'Cos we want yer, McKinley, yes, we DO. 
Have you heard from the front, 'way up in old Vermont ? 

How the grand old State was true ? 
How the "Democratic gain" they were looking for in Maine 

With a sickenin' thud fell throug'h ? 
The song we're a-singin', 'till the hills are a ringin'. 

Is (All sing.) "WE WANT YER, McKINLEY, YES, WE DO." 
And we rise to remark— 'cos we can't keep it dark — 

That we'll HAVE yer, McKinley, SARTIN TRUE." 

Choeus : We want yer, McKinley yes, we want yer mighty bad ; 

These Demo-Popo-cratic times are the worst we ever had— ^ 
So come to us a-flyin', 
For you we are a-sighin', 
'Cos we want yer, McKinley, yes, we want yer, want yer. want yer— 
(All slug.) "An' we'll HAVE you McKinley, SARTIN' TRUE." 

178 



A very enjoyable informal reception was then lield, Major McKinley greet- 
ing each of the Vermonters and inviting them into his home, where a cordial 
welcome was also extended to them by Mrs. McKinley. In deference to their 
wishes a photograph was taken of Major McKixley and the party, which then 
again formed into line, marched to the depot, and took the 11:00 o'clock train 
for Cleveland amid the huzzas of hundreds of friends in Canton. 



TWO GOVERNORS AND THEIR STAFFS. 

At 1:30 o'clock on Friday, September 11th, Hon. Asa S. Bushnell, Gov- 
-ernorof Ohio, and staff, and Hon. Charles AV. Lippett, Governor of Rhode 
Island, and staff, arrived in Canton to call on Major McKixley. They were 
met at the depot by the Canton Troop and the Reception Committee with 
coaches. Governor Bushxell and wife and Adjutant General Axlixe and wife 
occupied an open carriage and wei*e followed by the Governor's staff, as 
follows: Col. William P. Orr, Col. H. P. Kixgsley, Col. H. A. Prettymax, 
Col. Bi-RKE, Col. Axdersox, Col. Fisher, Col. Wixg, Col. Cockley and Capt. 
Andrews. They were driven to Major McKixley's home and most cordially 
received. Here they passed into the parlor, wiiere they were presented to 
Governor Lippett and staff. The two Governors gi-eeted each other warmly, 
their surprise being mutual and pleasure great in meeting one another on such 
an auspicious occasion. While lunch w^as being prepared Governor Bushxell 
addressed the great crowd of people which had not dispersed after listening to 
Major McKixley. He made a br-'ef but felicitous speech in which he said: 
^' We pledge him (Major McKinley) the support of the State of Ohio and be- 
lieve he will be elected by a larger majority than was ever given in the State 
before." At this the crowd cheered and cheered again and again. Following 
Oeneral Bl-shxell, Governor Lippett was introduced by the former and spoke 
in behalf of Rhode Island. He assured Major McKixley that Rhode Island, 
tliough small, would be in the front rank of States for the Republican ticket. 
Following Governor Lippett, Hon. John C. Weymax, a gray-haired veteran, 
but withal vigoi-ous and hearty though bowed with age, addressed the people 
in a most original manner and at the close of his talk was given three cheers by 
the delighted crowd. The Rhode Island party was composed of the following 
gentlemen: Governor Charles Warren Lippett, Adjutant General Sackett, 
Quartermaster Dennis, Colonels Taft, KxiGHy, Ballou, Thorxton, Norman, 
Walker and Hill, Lieutenant C. W. Abbott, United States Army, Lieutenant 
F. H. Peckman, Lieutenant Governor E. R.Allen, Congressman W. O. Arnold, 
State Treasurer Clark, Attorney General Dubois, Col. J. C. Weyman, G. W. 
Smith, Secretary, G. W. Millard and Charles H. Wilson. 

LORAIN AND ERIE. 

Following the speeches by Governors Bushnell and Lippett, two huge 
■delegations from Lorain County, Ohio, and Erie, Pennsylvania, arrived at 
Major McKinley's residence together, on Friday afternoon, September 
11th, and were given a most cordial reception. Judge J. W. Steele who spoke 
for the farmers and workingmen of Lorain County, Ohio, said: 

"Major McKinley : Four years ago the Democratic doctors diagnosed the 
National condition ; they mistook the ruddy bloom of health for the hectic flush 
of disease and prescribed free trade. We took the bolus and are sick. Eight 
-weeks ago the Democratic quacks met at Chicago. They turned down their 

179 



doctors and with rampant and vociferous enthusiam they prescribed for our 
National ills a compound of anarchy, repudiation and free silver. Shall we 
take the dose? (Cheers and cries of 'No, not by a long shot.') Sir, from 1890 
to 1893 under the benignant policy of protection to home industry we reveled 
in prosperity such as no nation had ever enjoyed. We propose to secure the 
return of like prosperity and to that end we are here to pledge our earnest 
and untiring efforts to reinstate the Republican Party in power and to place the 
Champion of Protection in the Executive Chair of the Nation." (Applause. ) 

Judge J. F. Downing, who spoke for the Pennsylvanians, after eulogizing 
Lincoln, turned to Major McKinley and said: 

"Major McKinlet: We are convinced that no mistake will be made in 
placing William McKinley, the boy soldier of 1861 and the wise and experinced 
statesman of 1896, in the Presidental chair, and let me say we are going to do 
it. Lincoln believed it was a wise policy to protect our home industries, to en- 
deavor to bring the farmer's market nearer and nearer to the farmer's door, 
and so do you. (Applause.) Lincoln believed in a financial system which 
would protect labor against the evils of a vicious currency and facilitate com- 
merce by cheap and safe exchanges, and so do you. (Applause.) Lincoln 
beheved in suppressing rebellion against the peace and dignity of the United 
States, whether in the South or in the North, and protecting all the people in 
their inalienable rights under the Constitution and laws of the country, and so 
do you. (Applause.) We thank you for your Letter of Acceptance, which 
furnishes us so sure a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path. (Applause.) 
We also thank you for the many public addresses made on this spot to your 
fellow countrymen who have called upon you on an errand similar to our own. 
These addresses, so patriotic and so replete with wisdom, will help mightily in 
securing an overwhelming verdict of the people in favor of truth and righteous- 
ness on tlie third of November next. We all hope and pray. Major McKinley, 
that your life will be spared to enable you to enter upon the discharge of the 
high and responsible duties which the American people seem to be ready ta 
impose upon you, and that the labors incident to the campaign now in progi-ess 
will not be more than you can easily bear. May God bless you !" (Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen and' My Fellow Citizens : There are represented 
in this great assemblage to-day citizens from the State of Pennsylvania and 
citizens from the State of Ohio. There are assembled here citizens of Lorain 
County, Ohio, the Lincoln Club of the city of Erie, and representatives of the 
Republican League of the State of Pennsylvania, which only yesterday adjourn- 
ed its annual convention. You are here from different sections of the country ; 
you are here representing different occupations and callings in life, but you are 
all here with a common purpose, all here with a common aim, and all marching 
under the same glorious old flag. (Tremendous cries of 'Hurrah for McKin- 
ley.') I bid each and every one of you welcome to my home. I know much of 
the fellow citizens of Ohio, who do me honor by their visit to-day. (Applause.) 
I know something of the great resources of Lorain County and of its splendid 
agricultural lands ; its great port on the lake; its manufacturing industries ; 
its splendid educational institution, Oberlin College; but above all, I 
know and value the splendid spirit of loyalty and patriotism of its people. 
(Great cheering.) I bid the Lincoln Club of the city of Erie welcome to my 
home. You bear the most honored name in our Republican annals, and 

180 



none is more illustrious in the annals of our country — a name which belongs 
not to a single city, a single State, to any aggregation of clubs, but to the whole 
A;nerican people. It is not the prop?:-ty cf a!iy i^olitical party. It belongs to 
the ages. (Great applause.) It is full of inspiration and embodies every Re- 
publican doctrine and represents the best aims and purposes of Amei'ican citi- 
zenship. I doubt if there is any other name in American history which more 
fully typifies the possibilities and triumphs of American opi^ortunity than that 
of Abraham Lincoln. (Cheers.) His life and career put to shame the false 
doctrine now so insidiously promulgated that there are class divisions in the 
United States. (Tremendous applause and cries of 'Good.') Humble of birth, 
surrounded by poverty, forced by circumstances to acquire unaided whatever 
education he had, he forged his way to the front, reaching the highest place in 
the gift of a free people and the protidest place in the history of the world. 
(Great applause and cries of 'We'll put McKixley there, too.') He demonstrat- 
ed while in office his wonderful — almost superhuman — ability, and met every 
public exigency in the most trying years in our history with consummate 
sagacit y and strength. It is gratifying to us to know that on the great ques- 
tions wh icli are dividing us this year, Mr. Lincoln stood from the beginning of 
his early iT>anhood where we stand to-day. We have the satisfaction of know- 
ing that in the present struggle we are close to him and have his approval of 
the great principles we advocate. (Applause.) No man ever showed a more 
thorough appreciation of the tariff and its influence upon domestic 
pi'osperity than he did. Fifty- three years ago he wrote an address to the 
Whigs of Illinois, on behalf of their State Convention of 1813, upon the 
subject of tariff and taxation and their effects upon the condition of the 
•country, which I do not think was ever excelled by anybody before him, or 
that has been excelled by anybody since. It is peculiarly applicable to the 
present situation. Mr. Lincoln said : ' The first of our resolutions declares a 
tariff of duties upon foreign importations producing sufficient revenue for the 
support of the General Government, and so adjusted as to protect Ameri- 
can industry, to be indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the American 
people ; and the second declares direct taxation for a National revenue to be 
improper.' (Great applause.) Listen to his description of the condition of 
the country at the time he wrote and hcTw vividly it portrays the time in 
wliich we live. 'For several years past the revenues of the Government have 
been unequal to its expenditures, and consequently loan after loan, sometimes 
direct and sometimes indirect in form, have been resorted to. By this means 
a new National debt has been created, and is still growing on us with a rapidity 
fearful to contemplate — a rapidity only reasonably to be expected in time of 
war.' You would think that Abraham Lincoln was describing the three years 
from 1893 to 1896. (Great applause.) Is it any wonder when the National 
Convention met at Chicago, May 17, 1860 — the second National assemblage of 
the gi'eat Republican Party — the following resolution was passed, which is the 
same doctrine that we advocate now: 'Resolved, That while providing reve- 
nue for the support of the General Government by duties on imports, sound 
policy requires such an adjustment of these imports as to encourage the devel- 
opment of the industrial interests of the whole country; and we commend that 
policy of National exchanges which secures to the workingmen liberal wages, 
to agriculture remunerative prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an 
adequate reward for their skill, labor and enterprise, and to the Nation commer- 
cial prosperity and independence.' (Tremendous cheering.) That, my fellow 
citizens, was the Lincoln platform of 1860, and it is the Republican platform of 

181 



1896. (Great cheering and cries of 'That's right.') I am glad to meet the young- 
men of the Republican League of the State of Pennsylvania. There is no gi-eater 
safety to our institutions than the manifestation of intelligent and patriotic in- 
terest in public affairs by the young men of the United States. America is the 
country of the ^-eatest and freest opportunity. We have no hereditary rulers 
and we will have none. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') We have no 
privileged classes and we will have none. (Great cheering and cries of 'That's 
right, too.') There are two great incentives to American manhood — the real- 
ization of individual ambition and patriotic devotion to country. The more 
active and intelligent the participation of every citizen in the affairs of state, 
the freer and purer and greater will be the Government. Here all citizens are 
interested in the Government, and here I am glad to see, represented in this 
great assembly, are men of every avocation and profession. You are not here 
because you belong to a privileged or official class, but you are here because 
you believe alike and because you want neither free trade nor free silver. 
(Great cheei-ing and cries of 'Hurrah for McKiNLEY.') We do not delegate to 
anybody our right to govern. We can not delegate that right to any- 
body. It is a sacred trust that can not be performed by a substitute, but 
must be executed by each citizen for himself. Indifference to our duties as 
citizens will inevitably be followed by incompetency and corruption in public 
affairs. There is no higher evidence of true patriotism than heai'tyand earnest 
interest in the affairs of the Government with the object in view of securing to 
all the people the greatest possible good. The discussion of political issues 
such as we are having now, and at last the sober, intelligent use of the ballot, 
IS tlie surest foundation upon which our institutions can rest and it takes the 
place of revolution in a despotic government. (Great applause.) The source 
of all power is the people themselves ; that is everywhere accepted as the 
foundation of our political fabric. The Republican Party has always been a 
party of lofty purpose. It nevei" had an aim, from the first moment of its exist- 
ence until now, which did not embrace the common good of aU. (Loud ap- 
plause and cries of 'That's right.') It never fought a battle against liberty and 
equality. (Applause.) It never struck a blow except for mankind. (Applause.) 
It was organized in conscience. (Great applause.) No political party has been 
formed since the beginning of time ^hich so appeals to the intelligence, enthu- 
siasm and conscience of the young men and the old men as the Republican 
Party. (Great applause and cries of 'That's right.') It never waged a contest 
in all its glorious past which more strongly appeals to the best sentiments and 
the noblest aims of both young and old as the contest it is making to-day. 
(Applause.) Its past is illustrious with great deeds, but it does not stop with 
its past achievements. It does not rest its claim for confidence upon them 
alone. It deals with the problems and issues of the day which are vital to the 
'welfare of the country and maintains the lofty purpose which has characterized 
it from the beginning. It stands for country now and will guard with sleepless 
vigilance its honor as it guarded its life in the mightiest crisis in its history. 
(Greet cheering and cries of '\'ou bet it will.') Gentlemen, for the assurances 
of suppor- tendered me, I thank you one and all most heartily, and with a full 
appreciation of what your assurances mean. Fighting under the banner of 
protection to labor and home industry, reciprocity, sound money, patriotism, 
and law and order, we can not but march to a triumphant victory in November. 
(Tremendous cheering and cries of 'We'll elect you all right.') I thank you 
from Ohio and I thank you from Pennsylvnnia for the generous and gracious 
messages which you have brought me to-day, and it will afford me sincere 
pleasure to meet each and every one » f y.xi personally." (Great cheering.) 



TfiE WORKiNQnEN OF HOMESTEAD. 

Three thousand employes of the Carnegie Steel Works at Homestead, 
Pennsylvania, arrived at about one o'clock Saturday afternoon, September 12th, 
over the Pennsylvania Lines west of Pittsburg. Three sections of trains of 
ten cars each brought sturdy workingmen from every department of the great 
and famous mills. The first two sections awaited the arrival of the third and when 
it came they formed in the following order: Chief Marshal, W. E. Corey; Police, 
in command of H. C. Nev.ton ; Sheridan Sabre Band, of Wilkinsburg, in com- 
mand of Floyd St. Clair; McKinley Glee Club, in command of Prof. 
Francis; Accounting Department, in command of C. E. McKillips ; Tech- 
nichal Department, A. C. Dinkley; Mechanical Department, H. J. Davis; 
Mystic Chain Band, Alex. Fletcher; Armor Plate Department, C. W. Bal- 
sixger; Converting Department, Rees James: Open Hearth Department, 
George Forrester ; Thirty-two and One Hundred and Nineteen Inch Mills 
Department, A. R. Hunt; Thirty-five and Forty Inch Mills Department, D. S. 
Kennedy; Ten, Twenty-three and Thirty Inch Mills Department, W. A. Cor- 
nelius; Twenty-eight Inch Mill Department, J. E. Schwab; Beam Fitting 
Department, James Grose ; Transportation Department, J. M. Molamphy . As 
the splendid line of men headed by the Canton Troop, Reception Committee, 
and Sabre Band marched west on South Street to Market and thence to the 
McKinley residence, it was greeted with loud cheers by thousands of 
people. These cheers were repeated by the workingmen and cheers for 
McKinley and Hobart were frequent and vociferous. In the line was a live 
coon in a cage who seemed to enjoy the admiration he excited. Five bands 
and a drum corps accompanied the delegation and the McKinley Glee Club of 
forty voices rendered the selection, "The Honest Little Dollar's Come to Stay,'' 
to the delight of the crowd at the McKinley home. The Committee who were 
received by Major McKinley consisted of Messrs. C. M. Schwab, Superinten- 
dent of the Mills; E. F. Wood, Assistant Superintendent; P. T. Berg, Master 
Draughtsman; W. E. Corey, Chief Marshal; J. M. Molamphy, Chief of the 
Transportation Department. Mr. Schwab, in introducing the spokesman, Mr. 
J. M. Molamphy, said: 

"Major McKinley: You see before you Homestead's representative work- 
ingmen. I am sure you would be better satisfied to see them at work and they 
would be — if they had it. But they are now idle. They come here to express 
personally the hope that you will be elected President of the United States, and 
upon the advent of your inauguration that you will hasten the re-enactment of 
your own McKinley tariff bill. (Great applause.) Every one of the workingmen 
you see before you is for protection and for sound and honest money. (Applause.) 
It gives me pleasure to introduce to you Mr. J. M. Molamphy, the Superin- 
tendent of our mills, who will address you in behalf of our men." (Applause.) 

Mr. Molamphy then spoke as follows : 

"Major McKinley: We are of the Homstead Steel Works which employ 
over 5,000 men and turn out 90,000 tons of finished material per month and 
under the McKinley law we could double that. "(Applause and cries of 'Yes,' 
and 'Easy at that.') It is too bad to see such men and such a plant lie idle, all 
caused by a lot of theorists, some for notoriety and some through ignorance. 
They surely don't expect to get something for nothing, or change the law of 
supply and demand ; nor yet do they expect that Coxey and his hobos will ever 
be made rich by an act of Congress. (Applause and cries of 'No, never.') I 
would say we are perfectly satisfied with the platform and with you for our 

183 



leader and when you are elected, which you will be us surely as the sun shines, 
i-e-enact the McKinley law and give us protection from the pauper labor of 
Europe and pass a law declaring gold the standard money of the country, and 
your name will pass down to posterity with those of Washingtox, Lixcoln 
and Garfield, (applause) and the woman and children who are now living on 
black coffee and bread will say, * God bless you, McKixley, and long may you 
live to bless mankind!' " (Great applause and an immense demonstration as 
Major McKuJLET mounted a chair on his doorstep to reply.) 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. President and Fellow Citizens: I am glad to have at my home and 
give welcome to the workingmen of Homestead. (Cheers.) The Republican 
Party has always believed in "homesteads" (laughter and applause) whether 
it be the homestead upon the public domain in the far "West, or the homestead 
in the busy centers of manufacturing industries. Mr. Lincoln signed the first 
homestead law that was ever passed opening up our great public territory as 
free homes to American citizens and from that hour until the present the 
Republican Party has been engaged in advocating a policy that would give a 
homestead to every man who works. (A voice, 'We are looking for a second 
LiNCt)LN in you, Major!') I can not forbear to congratulate you on the won- 
derful advancement you have made in the great industry you represent, so 
eloquently described by your spokesman. We are now engaged in a campaign 
which directly affects every workingman in the United States (applause) and 
every interest beneath our flag. We are engaged in a contest which involves 
not only the question of tariff but involves the question of sound money ; 
whether we shall have the same good money we now have and have had for 
more than sixteen years past, or try the hazardous experiment of engaging in 
the independent fi'ee coinage of silver, an experiment that has worked disaster 
everywhere and is bound to work it hei'e if ever tried. Some phases of this 
question I want especially to present for your consideration. The statement 
is made very frequently that the gold standard has injured the business of the 
country, diminished the prices of agricultm-al products, appreciated the pi"ice 
of gold and wrought ruin and disaster to the country. This is, of course, a 
mere assumption, and is based upon the fluctuations of the market prices of 
commodities which in many instances have diminished in the last twenty-flve 
years, and because of this decrease in prices it is asserted that gold has appre- 
ciated. The fall in prices every man in this audience knows is easily and 
readily accounted for upon a moment's reflection. The decrease in the price of 
commodities has been going on ever since skill, genius and invention have been 
at work, aided by a protective tariff and the rich rewards that our prosperity has 
offered, and such cheapening process has been marked and conspicuous for a 
third of a century. Wherever and whenever agricultural products have 
fallen in price, it is discovered that there has been an increased production 
and that the increased consumption has not kept pace with it. As gi'eat areas 
of lands have been opened to the raising of farm products, the quantity of such 
production has increased, and the demand not increasing in the same propor- 
tion, prices have logically and inevitably fallen. It does not require a great 
effort of the mind to comprehend that if you increase the quantity of wheat in 
a single year enormously, with about the same number of consumers as before, 
that the prices will come down. With a given number of consumers and an 
increased production, with more competitors and no more consumers, the 

184 



cheaper will be the products. "What increases the price of any product is that 
many people want it and can only get it by paying a better price than some one 
else is willing to give. The more people tliat want an article the better price 
it will command. The more people who want your labor, the better wages you 
will receive. (Applause.) If there is one day's labor for sixteen workingmen, 
you will not get as good wages as though there are sixteen da5"'s work for one 
workingman (laughter and great cheering) and that is the sort of 16 to 1 we 
want in tlie United States. (Applause.) The changes in the prices of agricul- 
tural products, or of any other commodities which have been cheapened in 
their iDroduction by improved machinery and more competitive fields with 
greater productioA, do not prove that gold has advanced in value, but simply 
that such products have fallen in price. A bushel of wheat, even at the present 
low price, will buy more American commodoties then the same quantity of 
wheat bought thirty or forty years ago. Ah, gentlemen, are not the wages 
x:)aid labor, rather than the ever-changing xnarket price of commodities, the 
best and most logical test? Is not the labor of man, rather than the thing 
which his labor creates, the real test? Have the wages paid to labor since 
1873, as measured by gold, decreased? (Applause.) This is the crucial ques- 
tion. We resumed specie payments on a gold basis, January 1, 1879. Since tliat 
time wages and salaries have not declined but have risen. In 1880 the number 
of employes in the manufacturing establishments of the United States, men 
and youth, was 2,732,000, aggregating in wages $947,375,000, or an average of 
$324 per capita. .. In 1890, ten years after resumption, the number of wage earn- 
ers was 4,712,622, and their aggregate earnings were $2,283,218,529, or $488 per 
capita. This clearly shows that the gold basis has not injured labor. Here 
was an increase from 1880 to 1890 of nearly fifty per cent. Tliis increase in the 
wages of labor is further sustained by the report of the Committee of the 
United States Senate made by Senators of both political parties which in 
1892 investigated the subject of wages and prices. The Committee reported 
that in twenty-one selected industries wages were in money forty per cent 
higher in 1880 than in 1860, and sixty per cent higher in 1890 than in 1860, and 
that the prices of staple articles had fallen between 1880 and 1890 in some 
instances one-third. In other words : 'There never had been a time in our 
history when work was so abundant, or when wages were so high, whether 
measured by the currency in which they were paid, or by their power to sup- 
ply the necessaries and comforts of life.' (Applause.) Tliis is what ^ou left in 
1892. Is therja workingman in the United States who does not want that con- 
dition back a^ain? (Cries of 'No/ 'No,' and long continued applause.) Since 1860 
wages have advanced sixty-eight and one-half per cent, according to tlie tables 
of the Senate Committee. The wages paid in 1860 were when we had the free 
and unlimited coinage of silver and thirteen years before the suspension of the 
free coinage of silver. In 1890, according to the Census, the number of persons 
over twelve years of age engaged in, gainful occupations was 14,326,150. This 
great army, of which you are a part, constituting more than one-fifth of our 
population, work for wages and are paid in money measured by gold — that is 
when you have work (laughter and applause)— or money as good as gold. You 
have had no other kind of money since 1879 and the working people of no other 
country of the world have ever had, or now have, any better money. Those 
Are the toiling masses wlio were tlie most prosperous in 1892 of any working 
people in the world and more prosperous then than they had ever been before. 
The cheapening uf commodities comes largely from the introduction and 
application of labor saving machinery both on the farm and in the factory and 

185 



from the vastly improved and greatly cheapenea means of transportation. 
There is scarcely any branch of production which does not turn out more 
commodities per hour of labor than it did in 1873. It would be just as 
reasonable and just as conclusive to say that the suspension of the free 
coinage of silver in 1873 reduced the price of steel rails from $120 per ton 
to $25 or $30 per ton, the price now prevailing, as to say that this act reduced 
the price of wheat. The price of wheat is fixed by the law of supply and 
demand, which is eternal. Gold has not made long crops or short crops, high 
prices or low prices. Gold has not opened up the wheat fields of Eussia, India, 
or the Argentine Republic, nor will free silver in the United States destroy 
them. Gold has not kept up the freight rates for the agricultural producer ; 
and the stopping of free coinage in 1873 has not advanced them. In 1873 the 
average freight on grain by lake and rail from Chicago to New York was 26.9 
cents per bushel ; in 1895 it was 6.9 cents per bushel. Our working people 
bought the necessaries and comforts of life cheaper for themselves and families 
each year during all these years since 1873, and down to 1892 they were getting 
better wages paid in gold for their labor than ever before. In the United 
States everything has been cheapened but man, and,- as nearly as I can ascer- 
tain, in free silver countries, such as Mexico, Central America and South 
America, man alone has been cheapened. Everything he buys has steadily 
increased, with the constant fluctuations but general tendency towards and 
steady decrease in the price of silver. With the gold basis and the 
protective tariff from 1879 to 1893, the workingmen were more steadily 
employed than ever before. They never before received fuch good wages. 
They never before were paid in better money, and their wages never 
before bought as many of the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life. 
(Applause and huri-ahs for McKinley.) If the gold standard deprived the 
American toiler of a single day's work, or his family of a single comfort, or 
reduced his wages, or made life harder for him, I would be against it. (Ap- 
plause.) As it does not, and as it promotes the general prosperity and upholds 
the National credit and honor, I am for it, and shall steadily favor it so long 
as I believe it is truly beneficial and advantageous to our country. (Loud and 
continued applause.) Hon. John G.Carlisle, the distinguished Democrat 
who is at present Secretary of the Treasury, on April 15, 1896, addressed the 
workingmen of Chicago in a speech of great power and eloquence. Among 
other things he said: 'The value of the silver dollar, under free coinage, 
would fluctuate from day to day, moving up and down with the rise and fall of 
the commercial price of the bullion contained in it, as the Mexican dollar does 
now ; and the premium on the gold dollar would, of course, fluctuate to the same 
extent, thus affording an opportunity to bullion brokers and speculators to buy 
and sell it at a profit. It would cease to be used as money, because no man 
would pay his debts in gold dollars, or in paper redeemable in gold dollars, 
worth one hundred cents each, when the law permitted him to pay them 
in silver dollars worth only fifty-one or fifty-two cents each. 'The sudden 
withdrawal,' says Mr. Carlisle, 'of $620,000,000 in gold fi-om the currency 
of the country would undoubtedly produce a financial and industrial disturb- 
ance far more disastrous to the interests of labor than has ever been experi- 
enced in our history and no man who has a particle of sympathy for work- 
ingmen and workingwomen, and their dependent families, can contemplate 
the possibility of such a calamity without feeling that it is his duty whether 
he occupies private or public station, to employ every honorable means at his 
command to avert it . ' These are words of truth and soberness and I commend 

"186 



them to the workingmen of Homestead (applause) and the entire country as 
well entitled to their most serious and earnest consideration. Gentlemen, 
I have always been, as you know, in favor of a protective tariff. (Loud and 
long continued applause.) I have always advocated it, and believe in it, because 
I think it is necessary to protect the American workingman against the 
cheaper labor of the old world. (Vociferous cheering. ) Applying that great 
principle, I am in favor of protecting to-day the laboring men of the United 
States against a degraded currency. I am opposed to free trade because it 
degrades American labor; I am opposed to free silver because it degrades 
American money. (Continuous cheering.) You, workingmen, who are making 
in part the great armor-plate for the use of our Navy, must use that greatest 
armor of American citizenship — the ballot, in defending the honor, the credit 
and the currency of the United States. (Applause.) I thank you more than I 
can tell for this call from men who toil. To feel that they are with me, 
and the cause which, for the moment, I represent, is a source of strength 
and comfort tome for which I can not make suitable acknowledgment. (A 
voice, 'We are all with you, Major.') I am glad to meet and greet you, and it 
will be further a pleasure to shake the hand, if possible, of each and every 
one of you." (Vociferous cheering.) 



CHICAGO DEMOCRATIC COMMERCIAL MEN. 

Two sections of special trains of nine Pullman coaches each bearing the 
Chicago Commercial Democratic McKinley Club arrived in Canton, Saturday 
September 12th, over the Baltimore and Ohio and Cleveland, Terminal and 
Valley Eailroads. The first section arrived about 9:00 o'clock and contained 
representatives of the houses of Marshal Field Co., the J. V. FarwellCo., 
Carson, PiRiE, Scott & Co., and the Democratic McKinley Club. The crowd 
numbered abovit six hundred and was accompanied by Brooks' Second Regiment 
Band, headed by Manager Brooks in person, and Major F. W. Putnam. As the 
train pulled in at the West Tuscarawas street depot the hundreds of people 
who lined each side of the street for blocks sent up shouts "of welcome to the 
traveling men who as they left the train quickly formed into line, and headed 
by the Canton Troop, the Canton Commercial Travelers Escort Club, in charge 
of N. J. Trodo, President, and the Reception Committee of prominent Canton- 
ians, tlie travelers marched to the Barnett House. In the carriages were Chief 
Marshal Frank Higbee, President G. Hofpstadt, First Vice President John 
Devlin, Second Vice President W. F. Grafton, Secretary Harry H. Levy, and 
Treasurer A. F. Olger. After escorting this section to the hotel the escorts 
retui-ned to the Valley depot, the band and commercial men occupying two 
coaches, which had been kindly placed at their service by the Canton Electric 
Railway Company. The second section arrived about 10:00 o'clock and con- 
sisted of nine Pullmans and contained the traveling men of various Chicago 
houses and other members of tlie Commercial Democratic McKinley Club. They 
were escorted to the various hotels. As the splendidly appearing lines passed 
along the street, keeping excellent step to the inspiring strains from the 
Second Regiment Band, a first-class orchestra, the crowds along the streets 
which densely packed the sidewalks cheered the visitors most heartily and in 
turn were applauded by them. When the men passed Mother McKinley's 
home they cheered her time and again. Mother McKinley occupied a 
comfortable rocking chair on the porch and was surrounded by a number 

187 



of lilends and bowed her acknowledgments expressive of her pleasure at the 
salute given her by the visitors. After breakfasting at the hotels the line 
formed at the Barnett House and headed by the Troop, Escort Club, and Re- 
ception Committee and Brook's Band, marched to the McKinley home. When 
the thousand or more Chicago men arrived a great throngof people already filled 
the yard, but President Trodo, of the Canton Commercial Men, by a skillful 
maneuver, cleai-ed a large space in front of the house. He formed his men in 
two lines, extending from the porch to the gate, and, at a signal, they marched 
north and south, so that the visiting travelers had the position of honor. The 
maneuver was heartily applauded. Tlie officers of the delegation were usher- 
ed into the parlor and presented to Major McKinley. The Major's appearance 
on the porch was the signal for an outburst of cheering and applause which 
lasted several minutes. When this had subsided sufficiently President Hoff- 
STADT, spoke for the visitors as follow*: 

" Major McKixLEY : In behalf of the Commercial Democratic McKinley 
Club of Chicago, comprising only men who have always voted the Democratic 
ticket, and representing every branchof mercantile interest in our city, I extend 
to you our most cordial greeting and pledge to you our earnest and hearty sup- 
port. While giving you our votes and assistance in this campaign, the great 
majority of our Club still believe in the vital principles of the real Democratic 
party as enunciated by Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland and while we still 
may differ from you in a number of minor policies of government, those princi- 
ples which we have advocated, thougli still dear to many of us, sink to insignifi- 
cance when our country is threatened by the alleged Democratic Party. (^ Ap- 
plause.) Its platform and candidates nominated at Chicago, advocating r.epu- 
diation and dishonor, would, if successful, we believe, create widespread disas- 
ter and ruin the business interests of our country. We, the members of the 
Commercial Democratic McKinley Club, who have always voted the Democratic 
ticket, will now, when our country is threatened with anarchy, socialism a-nd 
repudiation, demonstrate to you in this crisis our patriotism and love for our 
country, its Constitution, its institutions, and its flag, the same as did all loyal 
Democrats in 1861, when our country was in the throes of rebellion. We feel 
and believe that by our support of you we will best subserve the Nation's inter- 
ests and maintain its honor and integrity and restore to a suffering people con- 
fidence and prosperity." (Great cheering.) 

At the conclusion of the speech Major McKinley mounted a chair on his 
porch, which was a signal for renewed applause. Cheer after cheer went up from 
the throats of the enthusiastic Democrats. Hats, umbrellas, flags, and hand- 
kerchiefs were waved in the air. " Three cheers for McKinlby " were renewed 
time and again. Some one shouted "Illinois will give 150,000 for McKinley." 
This also was cheered to the echo. " McKinley' s all right," was yelled, "That's 
what," came the reply. At length quiet was restored and Major McKinley 
permitted to deliver his address. It was listened to with close attention, and 
his remarks on sound money elicited great applause and met with many enthu- 
siastic endorsements. Following the speech Major McKinley greeted each one 
personally and for nearly half an hour was kept busy shaking the gentlemen by 
the hand. Then headed by the Band, the travelers marched down Cleveland 
Avenue to the Square, where they disbanded for the hotels. Major McKinley 
.spoke as follows : 



188 



Major ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. HOFFSTADT AND GeXTLEMEN" OF THE DEMOCRATIC COMMERCIAL ClUB OP 

Chicago: Your call is most gratifying to nie and most encouraging to the 
cause in which we are jointly engaged. To have this large body of commercial 
men representing every branch of mercantile interest in the great city of 
Chicago, belonging to another political party than the one with which I am 
associated, pay me a visit is peculiarly significant, and demonstrates in<a most 
striking manner that the great conservative force of all parties can be relied 
upon to unite in every crisis of the country. (Tremendous cheering.) That 
you have traveKd nearly four hundred miles to bring me assurances of support 
shows your deep solicitude for the honor of the country and signalizes the 
interest which is everywhere felt that the good faith of the Nation shall not 
be impaired and that its credit and currency shall never be degraded. (Great 
applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') It shows, too, that party lines, strong as 
they are, are not strong enough to prevail against the country's highest 
and best interests. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'That's right.') .What 
GorvERNETK MoRRis Said loug yeai's ago is peculiarly applicable now ! 'Let us 
forget party and think of our country, (Cries of 'We will.') Our country 
embraces both parties. AYe must endeavor, therefore, to serve and benefit 
both. This can not be effected while political delusions array good men against 
each other.' (Applause.) I sometimes think, my fellow citizens, that possibly 
the dangerous menace of. free silver and an irredeemable, unlimited paper cur- 
rency, which now confronts us, was needed to convince the whole world that 
the old sectional lines are obliterated and that the domination of party is not 
tenacious enough to control against the country's welfare. (Tremendous 
cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKixley.') If this shall be demonstrated 
it will be worth to National spirit, to patriotism and the National honor all that 
this campaign shall have cost of anxious fear and apprehension. (Applause.) 
You have said, Mr. President, that you are still Democrats. (Laughter.) i 
can not expect you to be otherwise, but now, as in the days of the war, men of 
all parties are united under the standard borne by the immortal Lincoln (great 
cheering) who stood for National Union and the starry flag of our fathers. This 
year, moved by the same sentiment of patriotism, you unite with the Republi- 
can Party because it carries the glorious banner on which is inscribed American 
honor and American prosperity. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'Hurrah 
for McKixley.') Gentlemen, I am profoundly impressed by this call, and 
while differing from me, as you have stated, in minor policies of government, 
yet I welcome you as patriotic associates in this great contest for the triumph of 
law and order (applause) for National honor and public and private honesty. 
(Renewed applause and cries of 'Good.') Our free institutions will never 
perish so long as the people are guided by the spirit of patriotism which 
you have exhibited in temporarily turning away from your party because you 
believe its success endangers public and private credit, and is a menace to 
public and private morals. (Enthusiastic cheering and cries of 'That's right.' ) 
It is a noble cause which engages and inspires this large body of commercial 
men. (Cries of 'Right,"Right.') To stand by constitutional authority and 
law is the highest obligation of American citizenship. (Renewed cries of 'Riglit.' 
'Right.') To stand by the public faith is the call of supreme duty. (Great ap- 
plause.) To preserve the public credit untainted and the currency uncorrupted, 
and both beyond challenge anywhere in tlie world, is the command of simple 
honesty and good morals. (Cheers and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') I appreciate 
the grave responsibility, which, by the action of my party, and the force of 

189 



circumstances, has boen placed upon me — a responsibility which would, be 
almost impossible to bear but for the consciousness that I have the sympathy 
and support of the patriotic men of all parties from one end of the country to 
the other, (Great cheering and cries of 'We will stand by you, Major.') One 
of the phases of the political struggle this year, my fellow citizens, is whether 
we shall have good money, or poor money. (Cries of 'We want good money ') 
The mere statement of the proposition, ought to bring that answer, as it has, 
■withoyt argument or elaboration. Everybody ought to want good money. 
(Applause and cries of 'We do.') Honest money is the only kind for honest 
people (great cheering) and the United States Government will have no other. 
<Renewed cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') There are good peo- 
ple, doubtless, who believe that free coinage of silver, at 16 to 1, will keep 
every dollar as good as it now is and result in giving us more money. But will 
it? (Cries of 'No, no, never.') All competent authority in our country and 
throughout the world is against it. Is it reasonable to suppose that the stamp of 
the Government can make fifty-two cents' worth of silver worth a hundred ? 
<Cries of 'No,' 'No.') Such a proposition is opposed by reason and experience. 
If it can make fifty-two cents worth of silver equal to one hundred cents, 
then the same power can make anything which it may see fit to call a dollar 
•equal to one hundred cents. (Great applause and cries of 'That's so.') Then 
•why have any real value in our money at all? (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') If the 
Government's stamp would answer, then paper with such a stamp would 
meet every requirement, and besides be the cheapest and most conve- 
nient. (Great cheering and cries of 'You are right.') What just or 
honest reason can be found that all our money shall not be good and equal to 
the bfest in the world ? (Loud cries of 'None,' 'None.') We do not have any- 
thing but the best in the United States. (Tremendous applause and cries of 
'Hurrah for McKinley, the next President.') We have the best money now 
and that is what it has been since 1879 and that is what it will continue to be 
if the Republican Party is again given control of every branch of the Govern- 
ment. (Great applause and cries of 'It will be given that, all right ') This is 
what it will not be, if our opponents shall triumph. (Renewed applause and 
cries of 'They won't triumph ') If we were starting out now, gentlemen, to 
originate a new financial system would we make a different one from that we 
now have? (Cries of 'No,' 'No.') We might in some minor particulars, but 
would we not select the metal for our standard which was the most stable and 
unfluctuating in value, and the one most generally recognized as the best 
money metal by the leading commercial nations of the world ? (Cries of 'Yes,' 
*Yes.') We would make our standard of that metal which was the steadiest 
in price. (Cries of 'That's right.') We would not overlook the fact for a 
single moment that gold will sell for as much before it is coined as it will sell 
for afterwards. Is it not the best for all interests to have a 
standard of money of a metal which sells for as much in bullion as it sells 
when minted and is just as valuable out of the mint as in it ; that loses noth- 
ing even if it is smelted and which is the same in value if every mark of the 
Government's stamp is effaced ? (Loud cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') A metal whose 
market value is the same as its coin value is surely a safer standard than a 
metal whose market value in the dollar is forty-eight cents less than its 
coin value. If we are to have two standards, they must be equal. If we would 
float both gold and silver freely, we must have the ratio based upon the com- 
mercial value of the two metals. This was the view of the early statesmen of 
our history irrespective of party. This was the view of both Jepfekson and 

190 



Hamilton, who differed widely on other subjects. This has been the view of 
all our wisest statesmen, Democrats and Republicans, (applause) from the 
beginningof the Government until now. (A voice 'Well, we are wise Demo- 
crats,' and great laughter.) This visit would seem to indicate it.- (Loud ap- 
plause.) There are those who think that there is something sacred about the 
ratio of 16 to 1 because the fathers established it — Dut the fathers did not 
establish it. They established the ratio of fifteen ounces of silver to one ounce 
of gold, and those who established the ratio made it upon the commercial value 
of gold and silver and they seem not to have been influenced by the fact that in 
1492 the commercial and coinage ratio was ten and three-fourths ounces of 
silver to one ounce of gold. It was not until 1834 that the United States adopt- 
ed the ratio of 16 to 1. And why was it done? Because that was believed to 
be the real commercial value, or nearly so, between the two metals at that 
time ; and they seem not to have been influenced by the earlier ratio of 15 to 1, 
but determined the ratio upon the real value of the two metals in the markets 
-of the world. (Cries of 'That's right.') Mr. Jefferson favored the use of both 
gold and silver, and yet, while he was President of the United States, on his 
own motion, and without the authority of Congress, he ordered the mints to 
discontinue the coinage of silver dollars. "Why did he do it? Because he be- 
lieved that he could keep our gold in the country and make it circulate at a ratio 
of fifteen to one only by suspending tho coinage of the silver dollar. He 
thought that if no silver was coined, the gold, although more valuable, would 
flow into the channels of trade. The fact was, that gold did not, notwithstand- 
ing the suspension of the coinage of the silver dollar. There were no silver 
dollars coined at all in the United States from 1806 to 1834. Then Congress 
changed the ratio between the two metals from fifteen to one to sixteen 
ounces of silver to one of gold, and om* whole history has demonstrated that 
whenever under any ratio the one metal is more valuable than the other, the 
more valuable goes out of circulation and the less valuable remains in. 
(Cries of 'That's right.') The cheaper metal drives the better metal out. 
{Cries of 'That's right, too.') This is the irreversible law of trade. This is the 
unvarying law of business ; and it is an indisputable fact that where you have 
two metals as money standards, the one less valuable than the other, the most 
valuable goes out, and if we have free coinage at 16 to 1, and the commercial 
value of silver in its relation to gold is 32 to 1, gold will go out and silver 
will be the only money with which we shall do our business. A hundred- 
cent dollar will not keep company with a fifty-two cent dollar (tremendous 
cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley,') and instead of our having more 
money, we would then have less money with which to transact the business of 
the country. (Great applause and cries of 'That's right.') So we wouldsecure 
by this Mexican system (great laughter) a poor dollar and less circulation. 
<Great applause and cries of 'That's right.') This we do not want and do not 
mean to have. (Renewed applause and cries of 'We won't have it.') In 1873, 
when the free coinage of silver was stopped, we were not using either gold or 
silver as money. AVe were using paper. We did not use a dollar of silver then. 
AVe now have $550,000,000 in silver and silver certificates, of which $413,- 
000,000 are full legal tender standard silver dollars, and behind every 
one of them is the Government of the United States. (Great cheering.) 
The lack of silver surely could not have depreciated prices since 1873, for 
we have sixty times more of it now than we had then. The depression in the 
price of wheat, about which much is now said, must be accounted for in some 
other way. The Cllief of the United States Bureau of Statistics states that the 

191 



consumption of wheat per capita in 1895 was twenty-five per cent less than in 
1892. Do you not think that this might be a more reasonable way for account- 
ing for some of the deprecation in the price of wheat than to charge it to the 
monetary legislation of twenty-three years ago ? (Cries of 'Yes, "Yes.') It is 
the decrease of consumption and the increase of competitors, not the suspension 
of the coinage of silver tliat accounts in part for the low price of wheat to-day. 
AVe can not make prices by law, but we can provide that all prices shall be 
paia in full dollars worth one hundred cents each everywhere in this country 
for ever more. (Cries of 'That's right' and great cheering.) We can 
not reverse the laws of trade and we will not reverse the laws of 
common honesty. (Great applause and cries of 'Good.') Our interests 
in the United States are mutual and interdependent, and it is fae 
plain duty of patriotism to protect all of them from undue competition abroad 
and from ruinous financial schemes at home. (Great applause and cries of 
'What's the matter with McKinley ?' 'He's all right.') This is our best busi- 
ness this year, gentlemen, and what will your ballots in November be ? (Cries 
of 'We will cast our ballots for McKixley and Protection.' Great cheering,) 
My fellow citizens, I can not overstate my feeling of gi-atitude and thankfulness 
for the honor of this call. You can not, I am sure, appreciate yourselves what 
it means in its great influence upon success for the right" to have a thousand 
Democratic commercial men who have all their lives been Democrats, come to 
the home of the Eepublican candidate for President and pledge to him. their 
earnest support. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'You'll have it, 
Major.') I thank you from the bottom of my heart (loud cries of 'We need 
no thanks') and, believe me, it will give me sincere pleasure to meet and 
greet each of you personally." (Tremendous cheering.) 

INSURANCE MEN OF CLEVELAND. 

About seventy-five representatives of life, fire and marine insurance compa- 
nies arrived in Canton, over the Cleveland, Canton and Southern Eailroad, Sat- 
urday afternoon, September 12th, and were escorted to Major McKinley's resi- 
dence by Mr. W. L. Alexander and other local agents. After greeting the 
Major's appearance with hearty cheers, Hon. William Monahan stepped for- 
ward and introduced Mr. E. D. Bokum, of the New York Life Insurance Com- 
pany, who spoke a few words of congi-atulation and greeting. Major McKinley 
responded in a brief address, which was enthusiastically applauded and followed 
by personal greetings and handshakings. 

r*lajor ricKinley's Response. 

" Gentlemen : it certainly gives me great pleasure to receive this call from 
the insurance men of the city of Cleveland. I have had every variety of callers 
since the nomination at St. Louis, but none have given me more satisfaction 
and pleasure than the greeting which you are pleased to give me. (Applause.) 
You are not so numerous as the delegations ordinarily are, but I doubt not that 
in influence you are quite as potential, as far as you go. (Laughter and ap- 
plause.) You are the custodians of some of the greatest institutions in America, 
and if any of our enterprises ought to be for sound money, good morals and 
good politics, it is certainly the insurance companies of the United States and 
their accredited representatives in every part of the country. ( Great applause. ) 
When you insure the lives and property of people you take upon yourselves a 

192 



great trust and responsibility, and I am glad to know that your companies every- 
where are deeply interested in the contest which is now engaging the atten- 
tion of the country to the end that they will be enabled hereafter to pay back 
to their policy holders, or their legal representatives, as good money as they 
received from them. (Applause.) It will give me pleasure, gentlemen, to meet 
each of you personally." 

PENNSYLVANIA RAILWAY MEN, 

Major McKiNLEY had hardly ceased speaking to the insurance men when 
a delegation of the department employes and officers of the Pennsylvania Lines 
west of Pittsburg arrived in the city, via the Ft. Wayne Railroad. The dele- 
gation had made the run from Pittsburg in two hours and twenty-five minutes, 
and was accompanied by the American Military Band, an excellent organization. 
It numbered about nine hundred and was headed by T. H. B. McKxight, 
Treasurer, M. C. Spencer, Assistant Treasurer, J. M. Lyon, Freight Auditor, 
Col. S. H. Church, Corresponding Secretary, and Hon. Otto Kayser, of the 
Union Lines. William M. Kennedy, Chief Marshal, of the Comptroller's office 
in Pittsburg, was assisted by Thomas Perry, of the Freight Department, 
Pennsylvania Lines, and twenty-five aides, one from each of the departments. 
The decorations, which were elaborate, were in charge of Train Dispatcher 
Witmer, of the Fort Wayne division. The badges were especially handsome, 
and had been designed by Henry C. Abbott, of the Purchasing Department, 
Pennsylvania Company. When the delegation arrived in the city a storm was 
threatened, but the men marched to the McKinley residence, not minding the 
dark and ominous clouds which had suddenly overspread the sky. At the 
McKinley residence Otto Kayser, Chairman of the Executive Committee, 
introduced the spokesman, Col. Samuel H. Church, who said: 

"Major McKinley: When it was proposed among the employes of the 
general offices of the Pennsylvania Lines west of Pittsburg that we come to 
Canton, the movement was enthustically promoted until, without any regard 
to party affiliations, we are almost unanimously before you — at least we are 
present nearly in the ratio of ninety-nine to one. There are no classes repre- 
sented by us. Our railroad service knows nothing of artificial class distinctions. 
(Applause.) The highest officials who control the gi-eat corporation which we 
delight to serve all began in the ranks. Every man before you knows that his 
advance in the service depends upon his own fitness and the man who would 
appeal to us as one class against another class, forgets the rule of life in this 
free country under which the intelligent workman of to-day becomes the man- 
ager of to-morrow. The Republican Party is now engaged in a battle in which 
it seeks to rescue the public faith of the Nation from the impending brand of 
public fraud. (Cheers and applause.) After winning many a hard fight it has 
enlarged the freedom and advanced the dignity of our people, and whenever it 
has been defeated the growing prosperity of our country has been at once 
checked. There is gi-ave concern felt by every man in this assemblage for the 
preservation of his position in business and the welfare of his home. (Cries of 
'That's so.') The fear of this mad scheme of silver inflation hag caused an 
industrial inaction that is unparalleled, and a general shrinkage of railroad earn- 
ings of about twenty per cent, showing that confidence has been stricken down 
in eveiy avenue of trade. When we throw away books and see the workingmen 
in foreign lands busy making products which are sold in America while our 
own workingmen are idle and some of them in want for the necessaries of life, 

193 



it comes to us that it is a condition and not a theory that confronts us. And 
so, sir, we have coi^ie here out of our abundant hope for the restoration of 
National prosperity in the promise of an adequate tariff and the preservation of 
the gold standard of the civilized world, which will be when you are elected 
President and the flowing tide of prosperity comes in." (Great applause.) 

While Mr. Church was speaking a large delegation from McKeesport, Penn- 
sylvania, appeared uj)on the scene. Mr. Church had but fairly started his 
speech when rain began to fall. He spoke for a few moments, when the crowd 
began to call for McKinley, Mr. Dougherty, of the Canton Reception Com- 
mittee, asked if the crowd preferred to remain in the rain and h§ar Major 
McKixLEY, or go to the Tabernacle and have him speak there. The crowd 
decided to stay where it was and Col. Church resumed and concluded his 
address. When he stepped from the chair, Mr. AV. C. Croxemeyer, in behalf of the 
McKeesport delegation of nearly a thousand people, presented their respects to 
the Major. While he was speaking the rain began to fall in torrents and he was 
forced to stop. Major McKixley then mounted the chair to deliver his address 
to the mass of people who were being drenched with rain. The latter con- 
dition did not in the least dampen their enthusiam for they gave their dis- 
tinguished fellow citizen a rousing ovation. Major McKixley himself then 
proposed going to the Tabernacle, where he promised to address them, whicli 
was agreed to, and the crowd made a break for the building, half a mile distant. 
Major McKixley was quickly driven to tlie Tabernacle, but it had already 
pretty well filled with people before lie arrived, and as he appeared at the door 
he was greeted with an outburst of cheers that fairly made the building 
tremble On tlie stage were Messrs. Church and Croxemeyer, of the Keystone 
State, and C. A. Dougherty, D. T. Cool, JohxM. Wells, and James J. Grant, of 
Canton. Mr. Church acted as chairman. He said that he regretted that his 
speecli had been partly washed away by the rain, but he formally extended the 
greetings of the employes of the Pennsylvania Company to Major McKixley, and 
Mr. Croxemeyer also briefly spoke in behalf of the i^eople of McKeesport. 

Major McKiniey's Response. 

"Col. Church, Mr. Cro^'EiMeykr, axd My Fellow Citizexs: I regi'et very 
much that the rain has divided this great delegation from the State of Penn- 
sylvania, but I am quite sure that rain will not divide you on the third day of 
Tsovember. (Great applause and cries of 'No, no, you bet it won't.') There are 
represented in the delegations this afternoon men in the employ of the great 
Pennsylvania Railway Company and workingmen and other citizens from the 
city of McKeesport, Pennsylvania. (Cheers.) I remember with special pleas- 
ure the visit I made to that city two years ago to-day, at the celebration of its 
one hundredth anniversary. (Applause.) I remember to haA^e had brought to 
my attention then the very remarkable progi'ess, industrial and otherwise, 
which had been made by that enterprising city in the first one hundred years of 
its existence. (Applause.) I did not find everybody so well employed as they 
had been during the previous two years, but I found great industries giving 
employment to thousands of workingmen that had been built up under the Re- 
publican policy and which until 1894 had enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity for 
more than a third of a century. (Gi-eat applause.) I was glad to note among 
other things in connection with that city the establishment of a tin plate works, 
one of the first if not the first, ever established in the United States, giving 
employment to hundreds of men, and to hundreds more in other parts of the 

194 



country, and I wish to say now, ns I liave said before, that the man to wliom 
this country is indebted probably as much as to any other for the estabh'shnient 
ot tliat industry is Mr. Cronemkyer. ot McKeesport, (gi-eat applause) who 
serves as your spokesman to-day. (Great cheers.) I am glad to meet and to 
greet the citizens of McKeesport, and wish for them a return of that splendid 
prosperity which they enjoyed four years ago. (Tremendous applause.) I am 
also glad to meet so many of the men employed in the general offices of the 
Pennsylvania Lines west of Pittsburg here at my home, for I have long known 
much of their efficiency and fidelity when traveling away from it. (Applause.) 
Considering that your agents in executing your orders and plans are but frail 
human beings, like the rest of mankind, nothing could surpass the wonderful 
perfection, completeness and safety of the system of railway management and 
operation which distinguishes this country above all others, and your road as con- 
spicuously as any in the country. (Great applause.) In its advancement .you 
have achieved results that even in my own boyhood would have been considered 
magical. You have practically eliminated distance, subdued nature and 
brought into contact 'the uttermost ends of the world' — all with a skill, celerity 
and perfection, as well as modest pride, that does you infinite credit. (Ap- 
plause.) But, busy business men that you are, I am glad to see that you have 
not lost your interest in public affairs and are determined to do all you can for 
their wise and honorable conduct. Indeed, I do not think that there was ever 
a time in the history of our country when so many men were interested in the 
proper determination of public questions as this year, and no class of our people 
are personally so much interested in their righteous settlement as the men who 
work for v^'ages and salaries. (Great applause and cries of 'You are right.') 
Your zeal is most commendable, and I thank you for it. It has pleased me very 
much to observe that all along the lines of the railways of this country the em- 
ployes are organizing for success, and I thank them for it. (Applause and cries 
of 'We don't need thanks.') ButI want to give you one piece of advice — don't use 
these great organizations to influence your employers to vote the same ticket that 
you do. (Tremendous cheers and laughter lasting for several minutes.) And I also 
warn you against any attempt to coerce the officers of your Company into voting 
the Republican ticket. (Renewed cheers and laughter and cries of 'Hurrah 
for McKiNLEY. ') No body of men in the country have a greater interest in the 
prosperity of the United States, which they always do so much to create and 
promote, than the vast army of men in our wonderful railway service. No 
enterprises feel depression more quickly than the railroads — those grand 
arteries of commerce and civilization which have united, developed and trans- 
formed the countries of the globe. (Cries of 'That's right.' No agency more 
accurately registers the business of the country than the railroads and 
there is none that has so miraculously advanced it. They connect the 
far West with the extreme East, the remote North with the distant South, 
and constantly traverse every intervening part of our common country. 
Railroads measure by their passenger traffic and freight tonnage the busi- 
ness condition of the villages, cities, counties and States through which 
they pass. They are unfailing barometers of every business change, and 
have never yet failed to meet every demand made upon them, however 
sudden, perplexing, or great. They are constantly increasing their resources 
and facilities, their efficiency, and capacity and in the sharp competition of 
legitimate business rivalry they have constantly, of their own free volition, 
steadily reduced their rates for both freight and passenger traffic. They 
not only register the domestic trade of the country, but, to a very large 

195 



degree, the foreign trade, for without their enterprise and liberality the 
farmer would be deprived of any participation in distant markets and 
the merchant unable to offer his goods at prices within the means of many 
of his customers. Whatever wrongs they have perpetrated, and in a system 
BO great and extensive as that of the United States doubtless there have 
been some, they are in spite of their efforts to prevent extortion rather than 
on account of their purpose to encourage it. They are now and always have 
been, common carriers, and I believe that almost without exception, the aim 
of their managers is to oblige and not impose upon the public. (Great 
applause.) No department of human industry in the United States has made 
greater advancement in the last thirty years than that which you represent. 
In 1865 the number of miles of raih-oad in operation in this country was 35,037 ; 
in 1887, 150,000; and in 1893, 178,000 miles; but I believe we have not been 
building many since then. (Laughter and applause. ) We have, at any rate, 
about one-half of all the railroads in the world. The traffic of our railroads is 
immeasureably greater than that of any other country. A single example will 
suffice to illustrate this: England is our acknowledged greatest commercial 
rival, and her foreign trade is the largest of any in the world. The vessel 
tonnage entered and cleared in the foreign trade of London, during 1890, was 
13,480 767 tons, and of Liverpool, 10,941,800 tons, a total for these two great 
shipping ports of 24,422,567 tons. The aggegate traffic on our railroads in our 
domestic trade for 1890 was 691,344,437 tons, or twenty-eight times as great, 
and in 1891, 704,898,609 tons, or more than twenty-nine times as great. For 
what, therefore, should we chiefly contend — the advancement and protection 
of this domestic traffic, or its practical abandonment, or neglect 
at least, in the effort to share England's ocean traffic? Whenever the 
prosperity of this country is blighted, the railroads are the first 
to feel it. (Cries of 'That's right.') If products are not carried by rail 
transportation, there is no employment demanded for the operatives on 
railroad lines. Let us seek first to increase trade at home and gradually so 
improve our merchant marine as to give us greater advantages in the commerce 
of the high seas. We will neglect neither, but by a wise protective tariff and 
reciprocity system increase both. (Great cheering.) The Pennsylvania lines 
in 1865 had a freight traffic of 2,555,706 tons and in 1887 of more than 30,000,000 
tons, a rate of increase under the beneficent and undisturbed policy of the Ee- 
publican Party of more than eleven hundred per cent. (Great applause. ) So- 
with the other great railway systems, the New York Central showing a rate of 
inci-ease of seven hundred per cent, and the Erie of five hundred, in the same 
period. All steadily advanced and kept full pace with the increased prosperity 
of the country. This is the system, this policy of protection, this governmental 
policy, which we must again restore in the United States of America. (Cheers 
and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') Will not the ballots of the progressive and 
industrious railroad men be cast that way ? (Great applause and cries of 'Yes,* 
'Yes.') In 1895 the traffic of the Pennsylvania Eailroad had reached the enor- 
mousvolume of 37,129,747 tons, buti observe that while it was enabled to employ 
873,000 operatives in 1893, it had but 749,000 at work in 1895. You know, better 
than I can tell you, that it was poor business that caused this army of 124,000 
men to be no longer employed, and that it was poor business that caused a reduc- 
tion rather than an advance of wages. (Cries of 'That's right.') The great 
manufactories, the mines, and the farms, were not ' running on full capacity,' 
and the railroads, in consequence, were not doing as much or as profitable busi- 
ness as they ought to have been doing. Which policy do you like best, the old 

196 



or the new'; \ Load cries of We want i he Republican policy.') Decide this 
question for yourselves and then vote that way. (Cries of ' We'll vote all right.') 
Your spokesman has made an excellent and able argument against the policy of 
the free coinage of silver as it aflfects your business and I need not attempt to 
enlarge upon it. Free silver would prove equally as disastrous, aye, probably 
more disastrous, than free trade has proven to the people of the United States, 
(Cries of ' We have had enough of that.') We want neither free silver nor free 
trade in the United States (great cheering) and I know that men so familiar 
with honest business methods as yourselves will not be affected, by the false 
theories of this latest delusion of dishonest finance. (Cries of ' We are for 
sound money every time.') I thank you, gentlemen of Pennsylvania, represent- 
ing every branch and department of industry, for the call which you have made 
upon me here to-day, and I thank you for the messages, the gi-acious messages 
which you have brought, that you will stand this year for American honor, 
American public faith, American prosperity and the full employment at Amer- 
ican wages of every idle man in America. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 
'McKixLEY.') What we want in America, and by that name I mean the 
United States, what we w^ant, I say, in this country, is a full one hundred cent 
dollar (renewed cheering) and then we want after that the freest and best 
opportunity to earn it. (Continued cheering.) I thank you for this call and it 
will give me pleasure to meet and shake each of you by the hand." (Great 
applause.) 

WORKINGMEN FROH McKEESPORT. 

An hour after the Tabernacle meeting a large number of the McKeesport 
visitors, headed by their band, proceeded to Major McKinley's residence and 
in response to repeated calls he again spoke briefly to them, as follows: 

Hajor HcKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I have already spoken four or five times to-day to 
gi'eat throngs of my fellow citizens, and I am sure you will not expect from me 
anything like a speech. I am glad to meet you here at my home. I am glad 
to have the people of McKeesport return the call which I made upon the people 
of that city tw^o years ago, at the celebration of their centennial anniversary. 
I sincerely hope that your city will become in the future what it has been in 
rhe past, a most prosperous manufacturing city. (Great applause.) I hope 
that the time will not bfe far distant when every workingman in this country 
who wants work can get it (applause) and get it, too, at fair and remunerative 
wages. (Great applause.) And we mean when that time comes that the wages 
•of every American workingman shall be paid in dollars as good as are to be found 
anywhere in the world (gi'eat cheering) worth one hundred cents each not only 
at home, but worth one hundred cents each wherever trade goes. (Renewed 
•cheering.) It will give me pleasure, gentlemen, to meet each of you person- 
ally and shake by the hand all that so desire." (Cheers and cries of 'That's 
."what we want to do.') 

THE WOOL GROWERS QF HARRISON COUNTY. 

One thousand enthusiastic residents of Harrison County, Ohio, came to 
Oanton, Monday morning, September 14th, to pay their respects to Major Mc- 
Kixley. As shown by the banners and streamers, and by the words of their 
spokesman, they have time to think about the tariff and during their march tO 

1D7 



the McKinley home and while there they made very emphatic their opinions oi 
the evil results of the legislation of the present Administration upon their chief 
industry — that of wool raising. The delegation reached Canton about 11:00 
o'clock, over the Cleveland Terminal and Valley Railway from Valley Junction, 
having reached that point via the Pan Handle and Wheeling and Lake Erie Rail- 
roads. The Canton Troop and the Citizen's Committee were on hand to greet 
them. A parade was at once organized and to the music of the Cadiz City Band. 
and the Scio Cornet Band, both excellent musical organizations, the march to the 
McKinley home was taken up. The train was decorated with streamers and the 
marchers carried numerous campaign banners. Among the inscriptions were 
the following : "Protection in 1891, Price of Wool, 32 cents. Free Trade in 
1896, Wool 15 cents — 17 cents less." "Under Protection we had more Sheep to 
the Acre than any other County in the United States." "Harrison County 
Wool Growers were Protected Under the McKinley Tariff Law." "1891, Value 
of Sheep and Wool, $1,047,575 ; 1898, $215,040 ; Loss, $822,535." "Pounds of Wool 
in 1891, 874,018; in 1896, 512,265; Loss, 362,763." "First McKinley Club in the 
United States Organized in Cadiz." Each of the marchers wore a badge com- 
posed of a buckeye, a bunch of wool and a sprig of golden rod. The Committee 
each wore a ba4ge of blue ribbon with a bunch of wool and Major McKinley ap- 
peared upon the porch wearing one of them. While the Committee was 
waiting upon Major McKinley in the library, the Scio contingent of the dele- 
gation gathered in front of the house and gave the Scio College yell and a 
selection was rendered by the Scio Band and another by the Cadiz Band. 
Major McKinley was given a grand ovation when he appeared, and both Mr. 
HoLLiNGswoRTH and Major McKinley w^ere frequently interrupted by applause. 
Hon. J. C. Glover was chairman of the delegation and- introduced as spokes- 
man, Hon. D. A. HoLLiNGSwoRTH ex-Attorney General of Ohio, who said: 

"Major McKinley: Your-friends both political and personal of Harrison 
County, Ohio, to the number of about one thousand, are here to-day to pay 
their respects to you and wish you godspeed in. the manly fight you are making 
for American honor, American industries and American homes. All classes, if 
it be proper to speak of classes in this land of liberty and equal rights^ are here 
represented — the wool grower, the farmer, the merchant, the banker, the teacher, 
the preacher, the doctor, the soldier and the civilian, the money lender and 
the money borrower, the mine owner and the mine operator — rich and poor 
alike, all anxious to attest by their presence and felicitations their higli 
appreciation of your sturdy Americanism. They know of your high character 
and past public services. They recognize in you par excellence the champion 
and friend of every American interest. In you, however, honored sir, these, 
your fellow citizens and friends, recognize an unselflsli patriot, whose long 
experience, and broad, statesmanlike views on public questions, will, if you 
should be elected President, as you surely will be, form a safe guaranty of just 
and equal protection to every citizen of the Republic, high or low, rich or poor, 
black or white, from the shallow waters of the Platte at the center to tlie 
uttermost confines of our National domain. But, while recognizing the uni- 
versal and all-embracing cliaracter of yoiu* statesmanship, the people of Har- 
rison County, here and at home, beg to call your special attention to the con- 
dition of their one leading industry, the recent prostration, almost destruction 
of which by Democratic free trade has paralyzed every business center of the 
country. The badges worn here to-day are not necessary to remind you, wlio 
have so often honored the county by your presence, that, though one of the 
smallest, it is distinctively the most famous wool growing county ia the State, 

198 



and Di-obably in the United States. Under tlie beneficial influences of the act 
of 1867, known as the 'Bingliam wool tariff,' the venerable author of which is 
still living in great respect and honor at Cadiz, and sends by us to you his 
greeting and assurances of support. Harrison County produced more sheep and 
wool than any other county in the United States of like area. Its soil seems es- 
pecially adapted to the sheep industry. This prosperous condition of our wool 
industry was continued under the McKinley tariff of 1890, and it became in fact, 
not only the leading industry, but a part and parcel, the woof and warp, of 
every industrial interest in the country. But in ah evil hour in 1892, the 
electors of this great Nation voted to place its destiny and its honor in the 
hands of the Democratic Party. The Wilson-Gorman act, placing wool on the 
free list, followed in 1894, and, like a blighting, withering curse, it struck down 
this noble industry and brought ruin and desolation in its wake. In 1832, the 
last year of the McKinley tariff, the sheep of Harrison County num- 
bered 159,246, and were valued for taxation at $400,870. Their actual 
value was much more. They produced that year 912,422 pounds of 
wool which sold at an average price of twenty-eight cents per pound, 
thus netting its owners the sum of $255,484. Since then the number of sheep 
has rapidly decreased, so that, in 1896, the statistics show only 92,134, valued at 
$165,512, the wool clip of which amounts to only 512,265 pounds. At the ruling 
price of 14 cents per pound this product wnll sell for $71,717. In other words, 
there were 400,157 pounds less of wool produced in Harrison County in 1898 than 
in 1892, showing a loss, at the ruling price per pound in 1892, of $112,043. Add to 
this a loss in price of fourteen cents per pound on the same product in 1896, or the 
sum of $71,717, and w^e have a total loss on account of the Wilson-Gorman act 
on the item of wool alone of $183,760.96 in one year to the wool growers of 
Harrison County, or about $10 for every man, woman and child in the county. 
The aggregate loss in the county on sheep and wool under free trade is 
fearful ; in fact, it is destructive. This is one of the object lessons which Mr. 
Bryan in his Letter of Acceptance says it is not necessary to discuss. He holds 
out to the wool gi'owers of Harr^' son County no 'hope or inspiration ;' against 
them at least he seems to 'shut the door of mercy.' They have examined his 
Congressional record and find that, like the scarlet letter, free wool is stamped 
on every page. They have anxiously looked through his campaign utterances 
of the past few weeks for some sign of relenting, but in vain. The only words 
which he has deigned to speak on the subject were in one of his rear car 
addresses en route to the Platte, when asked about the tariff, he replied: 'We 
are going to regulate that by international agreement.' What? Submit to 
foreign nations the terms on which we shall open or close our custom hxiuses? 
Go into partnership with Europe on a question of our own sovei*eignty, like a 
half-civilized government in Asia, and collect our revenues on terms first 
agi-eed to by foreigners— great Caesar of the Platte, only this is promised and 
nothing more ! The people of Harrison County shudder at the possibility of a 
man who can utter such a sentiment, either in jest or earnest, becoming Presi- 
dent of this mighty Republic ; such words stamp the author as utterly un- 
worthy to aspire to the exalted honors conferred on Washington, on Lincoln, 
on Grant. In this dilemma. Major McKinley, the wool growers of Harrison 
County, in fact of the whole country, irrespective of party, are turning to you. 
In you they see life and hope and prosperity. They hail you as their leader, 
their Moses, and having faith in the intelligence and common honesty of the 
American voter, they venture here and now, in advance, to congratulate you on 
an assured victory in November over the allied hosts of free trade, anarchy, 

199 



repudiation and National dishonor. May your star of destiny, Major McKinley, 
ever remain in the ascendant!" (Applause.) 

When Major McKinley stepped upon a chair to respond he was greeted 
with round after round of cheers and it was some time before he could proceed. 
When the speech making had concluded a bulletin of the Maine election, from 
the Associated Press to the Evening Repository, telling that the most sanguine 
hopes of the Republicans bade fair to be more than realized, was read to the 
crowd. It was greeted with cheers and hurrahs, and at a sentence referring 
to the voting of one hundred Republicans to three Democrats, the applause 
became deafening. The usual reception followed ; the delegation formed in lino, 
and marched across the porch, each visitor shaking hands with Major McKinley 
as he passed. The delegation brought to Mrs. McKinley a box of magnificent 
flowers and a large bunch of golden rod. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. HoLLiNQSwoRTH, Ladies AND Gentlemen AND My Fellow Citizens : 
I count it a special honor to receive this visit from my fellow citizens, composed 
for the most part of the farmers from Harrison County. I would have been 
glad to have seen with you that venerable citizen and statesman, the Hon. John 
A. Bingham (great applause) whose message of cheer and congratulation and 
good will you have brought me. (Renewed applause.) I beg that you will 
carry back to him my best wishes and my earnest prayer that his life may be 
long spared to enjoy the respect and honor given him by his admiring country- 
men everywhere . I have known few men in public life to whom greater oppor- 
tunities were given, and who more admirably improved those opportunities, 
than your distinguished fellow citizen in the mightiest crisis of our country's 
history, and I needed no assurance from him that he stands now as he has 
always stood in the past, for his country and his country's honor, 
and the prosperity of the people. (Great applause.) It is especially grati- 
fying to me to receive a visit from so many of the farmers and wool growers of 
Harrison County. There is scarcely a county in the State which is so essen- 
tially agricultural as yours ^ You have no large towns; you have but few 
factories; your occupations are almost exclusively rural. Your county 
has long been noted as one of the great agricultural districts of the State, and 
especially devoted to that branch of agriculture known as sheep raising and 
wool growing. There is probably no portion of the country of the game area 
that has supported so many sheep as yours, and for many years, at least this 
was the most profitable industry of your farmers. It is not so good, I believe, 
now as formerly. (Laughter and applause and cries of No, "No,' 'I guess not.') 
The last three years have been years of great trial, not only to the wool grow- 
ers of your county but to the entire country. You have seen your flocks dis- 
appear and your fleeces diminish in value to an extent that prior to 1892 you 
would not have believed was possible. I remember, in 1891, to have deliv- 
ered an address in Cadiz to the assembled farmers of Harrison County in 
which I undertook to predict what would happen. if we had free wool in the 
United States. There were few men in that great audience that believed my 
prediction then. What do you think of it now, farmers of Harrison County? 
(Cries of 'We think it was too moderate.') In 1891, you had, according to your 
banners displayed here to-day, 153,503 sheep of the average value of $5 per head. 
In 1896 you have but 92,000 sheep worth $1,50 per head. In 1891 you received 
from thirty to thirty-two cen1 s per pound for your wool. In 1896, for the same 

200 



grade of wool, from fourteen to sixteen cents per pound. This enonnons loss 
to a great industry is truly astounding and calls for serious consideration and 
a prompt remedy, if one can be found . The only remedy we have in the United 
States is by the ballot and if it is protection you want, you know which party 
carries the banner of protection. (Enthusiastic cheering and cries of 'What's 
the matter with McKixley?' 'He's all right.') Prior to the enactment of the 
Wilson tariff law you had enjoyed, almost without interruption from the 
beginning of the Government, a tariff on your product to protect you from 
the competition of the cheaper lands and the cheaper labor of other 
countries. By that act your product was made free and opened up to the unre- 
stricted competition of all the wool of the world. What makes that act themore 
indefensible is, first, that it was wholly unnecessary; and second, that it was 
singling out one of the greatest industries of the country for immediate sacrifice 
leaving industries having no greater claim upon the consideration of the 
Government practically unharmed. (Cries of 'That's right.') No class of our 
citizens have suffered so much from that tariff law as the wool growers of the 
United States, and none were more deserving of generous treatment than they. 
So inexcusable was this act that President Cleveland, who favored a reduction 
of the tariff all along the line, and who believed in free raw material, was 
unwilling to sign the bill, and used these characteristic words against it: 'It 
may well excite our wonder that Democrats are willing to depart from this 
(free raw material doctrine) the most Democratic of all tariff principles, and 
that the inconsistent absurdity of such a proposed departure should be 
emphasized by the suggestion that the wool of the farmer be put on the free 
list and the protection of tariff taxation be placed around the iron ore and coal 
of the corporations of capitalists, but this did not avert the fatal blow. Not so 
well organized as other industries in the country, you were unable to secure 
the recognition to which you were justly entitled and your great product was 
made the victim.of free trade. (Cries of 'That's right.') In all the years in 
which the PLepublican Party was in power you know that it gave protection to 
wool and in tlie act of 1890 gave to this industry increased protection. This 
Jaw, the law of 1890, gave to almost ^'ery agricultural product >of the country, 
;almost every farm product in the land, the best protection it ever had known. 
Every possible protection that could be given to American farmers against out- 
side competition and to preserve the home market was always cheerfully and 
gladly accorded by the Eepublican Party. (Great applause and cries of 
'That's right.') The platform of the National Eepublican Party, for which 
we contend this year, much to my gratification singles out the wool industry 
and gives it especial mention as entiled to full protection under our revenue 
laws. (Loud applause and cries of 'Good, Good.') This is the language of the 
National platform: 'To all our products — to those of the mine and the field 
as well as those of the shop and factory — to hemp, to wool, the product of the 
great industry of sheep husbandry, as well as to the finished woolens of the 
mill we promise the most ample protection.' (Applause.) And what the Re- 
publican Party promises, it is in the habit of performing! (Cries of 'That's 
right.') It does not make promises only to break them. It says what it means 
and means what it says. (Great cheering ) If clothed with power in all 
I)ranches of the Government, it will give this great industry fair and just pro- 
tection with all the other industries of the country. But, my feIlo\T citizens, 
what we want, wliether we produce wool or any other agricultural product — 
what we want is to preserve our splendid home market to our own American 
producers, (Great applause.) It is the best market in th.e^ 'VV'Qrld. Therein 



no other market like it and upon every principle of justice and fair play it 
belongs to us and to nobody else before us. (Applause and cries of 'That's 
right.") Protection to the farmer has been recognized from the beginning of 
the Government until now. As showing the importance of your industry it is 
only necessary to say that in 1892 there were 700,000 wool growers in the 
United States — 700,000 people whose chief occupation was that of wool grow- 
ing. There were probably one-fourth as many more who were owners of small 
flocks of sheep in the United States. This industry employed besides those 
who owned the flocks, it is estimated, at least a half million laborers, repre- 
senting, with those who were dependent upon them, near 2,500,000 people. 
There were 700,000 farms averaging 160 acres each devoted to this industry ; 
and the mountainous regions and the vast plains of the great West, the North- 
west and the Southwest, which are not adapted to other kinds of farming, 
had been utilized in this great industry and made valuable. Every one of 
these farms comprising 160 acres of land each, or 112,000,000 acres in all, have 
been seriously injured by placing wool upon the free list. In one of the agri- 
cultural papers of the AVest I have seen the statement that in Oregon, Utah, 
"Washington, Idaho, and Western Montana, there were 6,710,746 sheep, which 
were worth in 1892, $13,421,000, while their sheep, in 1896, were worth only !i!6,- 
710,000. In 1892 we had 47,283,553 sheep in the United States valued at ^5125,- 
000,000. In 1895 we had 88,298,000 valued at $65,000,000. The total imports of 
woolen goods in 1892, under the Eepublican protective tariff law, were a little 
above $37,000,000 in value, while in 1895, under the Democratic tariff law, these 
imports amounted to more than $60,000,000. (Cries of 'Hurrah for McKixley 
and the Republican Party.') On April 2, 1888, in presenting the minority 
report in opposition to the Mills tariff bill in the National House of Represen- 
tatives, I said: 'Wool on the free list is a deadly assault upon a great agri- 
cultural interest and will fall with terrible severity upon a million people, 
their households and dependencies. It will destroy invested capital, unsettle 
established values, wrest from flockmasters thoir lifetime earnings, bankrupt 
thousands of our best and most industrious farmers, and drive them into other 
branches of agriculture already overcrowded.' (Cries of 'That's what it has- 
done.') Alexander Hamilton, in his famous Report upon Manufactures, 
made to Congress one hundred and four years ago, said: 'An extensive 
domestic market for the surplus produce of the soil is of the first importance. 
It is of all things that which most effectually conduces to a Pourishing state 
of agriculture.' Thomas Jeffekson some years later said: 'Experience has 
taught me that manufactures are as necessary to our independence 
as to our comfort. The duties we lay on all articles of for- 
eign manufacture which prudence requires us to establish at home, with 
the patriotic determination of every good citizen to use no foreign article 
which can be made at home, secures us against a relapse into foreign de- 
pendency. My own idea is that we should encourage home manufactures to 
the extent of our own consumption.' (Aijplause.) I have said that the home 
market is the best market— you know that from experience— and the home- mar- 
ket is made better by increasing our factories and giving employment to idle 
workingmen. (Great cheering.) Put every idle man in the country to work 
and your consumers will be increased (applause and cries of 'That's right') 
and when your consumers are increased, then your market is improved and the 
better the price you receive for your product. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') You v/ill 
remember that in 1892 it was repeatedly stated that free wool wcuTd incroruo 
the price of wool to the American wool growers. (A voice, ' That's the biggest 

202 



lie that was ever told,' and great laughter.) But tlien you heard them tell it.. 
(Renewed laughter and cries of * Yes, we did.') There may have been some 
farmers who thought that was true. (A voice, * Well, they know better now,' 
and great laughter.) There are none who think so now. (Renewed laughter 
and applause. ) It was said that if we opened up this country to the free use of 
the wool of the world the farmers would be benefited. It was done, and with 
what benefit you know better than I can tell you. Now, they tell you that free 
silver (laughter) is the panacea for all your ills (renewed laughter) and you 
have the same money in circulation now that you had four years ago, but you 
wool growers haven't got as much of it as you had then, (Cries of ' That's 
right.') As free wool destroyed your industry so free silver will degrade your 
money. (Applause and cries of 'That's right, too.') You have already been 
fleeced by loss on your flocks and you don't propose to be fleeced further by loss 
in the money you still have. (Great cheering.) We have opened up our mills to 
the wools of the world and both the wool grower and the woolen manufacturer 
have suffered. The American farmer has seen his wool displaced by the foreign 
clip. The American woolen manufacturer has seen his goods disappear from 
the American market to give place to those of the foreign manufacturer. The 
American farmer has thus lost directly in the price of his wool and almost as 
severely by the blow dealt to the home market for agricultural products, 
through the diminished consumers resulting from idle mills. The American 
farmer will not tamely submit to this injustice and wrong. (A voice, ' We 
don't intend to in Harrison County.') The American workingman in the woolen 
mills will indignantly repel that legislation whose effect is to degrade his labor. 
(Applause and cries of ' He will on the third of November.') My fellow citi- 
zens, I am glad to receive you and welcome you here at my home, and it will 
afford me sincere pleasure to shake hands with each one of you personally, if 
you desire me to do so." (Great applause.) 

STARK COUNTY SOLDIERS. 

The reception of the [Grand Army of the Republic men and other old 
soldiers of Stark County at the McKinley residence on Tuesday, Sep- 
tember 15th, was one of the most enthusiastic demonstrations ever known 
in Canton. The large crowd of veterans which formed in line in front 
of the Grand Army of the Republic Post rooms was swelled by many 
recruits on the march. Members of the Women'.s Relief Corps, and 
hundreds of other Cantonians, outside the organizations, followed the 
veterans to the well tramped lawn which was soon packed from porch to- 
fence. Many handsome flags from the post rooms were carried in the 
parade, but none was more carefully guarded than tlie tattered shreds of the 
flag of the 104th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, carried in the parade by SAMUEii 
RncHARD, of the Alliance Post. It was the first upon the lawn and was 
planted just in front of the chair on which the speakers stood. Along with the 
more sturdy veterans marched many that were aged and decrepit, who were 
almost overcome by the exertion of the short march. Notably among these 
was George Foster, among the first to reach the McKinley porch. He threw 
himself upon the first step, panting and trembling. But he was the first to. 
see Major McKixley coming upon the porch and forgetting his exhaustion was 
instantly on his feet on the top step and grasped the Major's hand, before the 
introduction and speech making could proceed. From this old veteran in 
front the enthusiasm spread in aU directions until every one present, eveij 

203 



those on the outer edges, were joining in the cheers for Major McKinley. Col. 
J. J. Clark, in presenting the members of the Grand Army of the Republic 
and other veterans of Stark County to Major McKinley, said: 

"Comrade McKinley: The men who stand before you now have for the 
most part before stood in this yard to extend to you congratulations as 
neighbors and friends. But we who stand here this afternoon, and come not only 
with our greetings as friends and neighbors, but also as comrades bound 
together by the ties of fraternity. To one who was born while the mutteringa 
of coming conflict gave faint promise of the carnival of death which was to 
follow, this comradeship may seem trivial. To one who was in the innocent 
period of babyhood while you and these comrades were standing elbow to elbow 
amid a field of carnage, fraternal ties such as ours may not seem to amount to 
much. To such they are a mystery which is not understood. But to you, 
Major McKinley, and to these men gathered before you there is nothing 
mysterious about the fraternal ties that exist between the members 
of the Grand Army of the Republic and the veterans of the Civil 
War. They come to-day to extend to you their congratulations on your nomi- 
nation for President of the great Republic you and your comrades struggled to 
perpetuate. On their behalf, and in their name, I offer their loyal and heartfelt 
congratulations on your nomination and in the light of the news received 
yesterday and to-day on your speedy election." (Applause and great cheering 
for MoKi^xey.) 

There was another grand ovation to Major McKinley as he stepped 
upon the chair to respond. He spoke to his callers in a familiar, neigh- 
borly vein, referring in touching words to their services for the preserva- 
tio. if the Union and their loyalty to flag and country now. The reception on 
the ve- ^nda which followed resulted in a great jam in which people were 
pushed ail.' jostled about by the hosts behind. It had been announced that the 
Somerset (Pennsylvania) delegation was approaching and fears that the new 
arrivals would pot an end to the hand shaking impelled every one to make a 
wild rush to the point where Major McKinley was receiving. Only by the 
hardest work of those on the porch and in charge of the delegation was the 
semblance of a line maintained. During all this time a chorus of gray haired 
veterans in the rear was singing the old camp songs, interrupted at short intervals 
<by cheers for Major McKinley. The leader seemed to be Mr. Jacob Heiney, of 
Bethlehem Township, and his enthusiasm was apparent in every feature of his 
•face. He is said to be a recruit to the Republican Party this year after voting 
with and working for the Democratic Party all his life. It was said, too, by 
-representatives from all the various posts in the county, that there were many 
such recruits in the parade. The soldiers the country over are fully twenty t« 
■one for Major McKinley and in Stark County will be practically unanimou 
ior him. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" Col. Clark, My Comrades and Fellow Citizens : It is a very great honor 
to me, and one which I shall always cherish, to receive this call from my old 
comrades of the war living in this neighborhood. (Applause.) You are here 
.to-day not as soldiers but as citizens— citizens of the best Government in the 
world— made better because of the services you rendered it nearly a third of a 
century ago. (Renewed applause.) I bid you welcome to my home and ex- 
j)ress to you, in response to the generous and gracious message delivered by 

:ci 



Ool. Clark, my most profound gratitude and thanks. It is a great tiling to 
liave been a soldier in the Civil War. It was an evidence of the highest patriot- 
ism and love of country, for patriotism means to be willing to give up life, 
health, or strength, if country demands it. This you vpere willing to do, and 
you attested your valor and patriotism upon a hundred fields during that war. 
(Cheers.) Happily, we are now a reunited country. Coming to this city to 
give me congratulations, not only are those who served on the Union side dur- 
ing that great struggle, but many men who served on the Confederate side. 
Both have been here to tender congratulations and give me assurances of sup- 
port. (Great cheering.) Now all are citizens of a common Union ready to 
battle for the Union and for the honor and integrity of the Government of the 
United State^. (Enthusiastic cheering.) Thank God, all sectional lines have 
been obliterated (applause) and men from all parts of our common country are 
to-day, though having differed in the past, marching under one banner, upon 
which is inscribed National honor, the maintenance of law and order and public 
and private honesty. (Great cheering.) I am glad to meet you here to-day. 
I was proud of you when in the field ; I am proud of you as citizens of the 
Union which you helped to save. (Applause.) No grander, no better, no more 
glorious army ever marched to battle for a nobler cause than the army of which 
you were a part. (Great cheering.) You were good citizens before you went 
to war ; you were good soldiers in the war ; you have have been good citizens 
ever since, ever standing by the same old flag. (Applause.) 

'What became of those battalions 

When the victory was won? 
Let me point you to a picture ! 

See a million solders there 
Flushed with triumph, and with weapons 

Flashing keen and bright and bare. t 

Vanished. Wondrous transformation! 

Where Is now that mighty band ? 
Do they roam, a vast banditti, 

Pillaging their native land? 
Ko. We point to field and workshop: 

Let the world the moral see! 
There beneath the dust of labor 

Toil the A'eterau soldiery. 
Ye who were mightiest in the battle 

On the mountain and the plain, 
Wrought, yes, wrought your greatest triumph 

When ye sought your homes agaln^ 
Sought your homes 'mid peace and quiet, 

Grasping with your strong right hand 
Implements of honest labor, 

Toiling to upbuild the land.' 

You were patriots then ; you are patriots now. You know no politics io 
your Grand Army Posts (cries of 'No,' 'No,') but you know patriotism when you 
see it. (Applause and cries of 'You are right.') I thank you most warmly 
for this call and for the cordiality of your greeting and the gracious messages 
which have been delivered by your spokesman ; and as another delegation is 
waiting, I must close by saying that it will give me great pleasure to shake 
each one of my old comrades by the hand." (Great cheering.) 

205 



SOMERSET COUNTY DAY. 

One of the most enthusiastic delegations that has visited Canton was the 
one from Somerset County, Pennsylvania, which arrived in Canton in two 
sections, the first coming in at two o'clock, the second about fonr o'clock, 
Tuesday afternoon, September 15th, being delayed on the way by a crippled 
engine, which was dropped at De Forest Junction. The first train bore the 
Lincoln Club of Somerset and clubs from Stoyestown, HoUsapple, Booneville, 
Mostollar, and Elklick, and awaited the arrival of their neighbors from Rock- 
wood, Meyersdale, East and West Saltsburg, Berlin, Garrett, Casselman, 
Markleton, and Confluence. The cars bore streamers which read: 'Frosty 
Sons of Thunder,' and the names of the Lincoln Club and towns from which 
the people came. There were twenty-four cars, all heavily ladgn, the crowd 
being estimated at 2,000, which the speaker, Hon. Norman B. Critchfield, said 
was one-fourth the Republican vote of the county. There were three bands 
with the delegation, the Salisbury, Confluence and Alert Cornet, which added 
greatly to the spirit of the occasion. Many banners were carried by the dele- 
gation, bearing upon them the sentiments of the people of Somerset County. 
Among them were : 'Have you heard from Maine? Yes, 50,000 Republican 
Majority." "Frosty Sons of Thunder." "16 to 1— Nit." "Good as Gold," followed 
by a painting of Major McKinley. "The Issue — Protection vs. Free Trade; 
American Gold vs. Free Foreign Silver." "Protection for America," with a 
picture of acoon. "Three Graces : Sound Money, Protection and Reciprocity." 
With the delegation were Hon. Norman B. Critchfield, of Jenners, spokesman ; 
Harry F. Sanner, Chief Marshal; Jules Whefley, Burgess; Edward Hoover, 
SheriCE; E. E. PuGH, County Treasurer; F. P. Sayler, Prothonotary ; Messrs. 
R. S. Scull and GeorcxE R. Scull, of the Somerset Herald, the latter having 
the honor of organizing the delegation, under the auspices of the Lincoln Club. 
The "Frosty Sons of Thunder" cheered lustily all along the line of march from 
the Valley d^pot to Major McKinley' s residence, and the thousands of specta- 
tors that lined the way answered with equal enthusiasm. When the visitors 
passed beneath the magnificent McKinley and Hobart banner at Market and 
Fourth Streets the visitors gave shout after shout. Owing to the construction 
of the immense arch over Market Street, the delegation was taken along North 
Street to Cleveland Avenue by the Canton Troop and Thayer's Band. After 
arriving at the McKinley residence the visiting bands played several selections. 
The appearance of Major McKinley on the porch was the signal for thunderous 
applause which continued for several minutes, and calls for "]\IcKinley," 
"McKinley," \vere heard during Senator Critchfield's address on behalf of 
the delegation, which was as follows : 

"Major McKinley: I have been asked by this delegation with which I 
liave come from Somerset Couaty, Pennsylvania, to express to you in a few words 
our confidence not only in you personally but also in the principles you repre- 
sent. The county from which we come is a purely agricultural county — more 
so perhaps than most counties of the Eastern States and so it happens that our 
delegation is made up almost entirely of farmers and as such we are interested 
in whatever relates to the welfare of those whose business it is to feed the world. 
We know no man in whom we can repose more confidence than yourself. We 
have noted with satisfaction your public career and we believe that you have 
always proven true to every trust committed to you by your own district and 
State and we are satisfied that when you are called upon to occupy the most 
j-esponsible place in the Nation, as you surely will be, the interests of the whole 

206 



American people will be no less sacred to you than have been the interests ol 
the 4,000,000 inhabitants of your own commonwealth. It is not simply a ques- 
tion of who shall be President of this great Republic during the four years that 
shall follow ; but the question to be settled is whether the depression that dur- 
ing the last three years has brought desolation and suffering into many once 
happy homes shall continue, or whether the burden that oppresses the people 
of the country shall be lifted and the light of other days be made to shine in 
places wliere now there is. only darkness. The farmers of the country are more 
deeply concerned in good money than any other class of citizens. By far the 
largest proportion oi the money that is employed in the business operations of 
the country is paid for labor, and from the wage earners of the land the largest 
proportion in the end comes to us to pay for the products of our farms. Not 
only must the wage earner come to us for the means of subsistence, but all 
other classes are subject to the same dependence. Who, then, can be more 
interested in keeping the money of the country good than we are ? We want a 
dollar that will lose none of its value in our hands — a dollar that will be just as 
good wlit^n we come to pay it out as when we received it. We want a dollar that 
•can be exchanged for any other dollar at any time or place that we may want to 
■use it. Tliose of us who are unfortunate enough to be paying interest know 
ihat just as certainly as the value of the dollar decreases so certainly the rate 
of interest will increase. This is a plain business axiom, one of the unchange- 
able laws of ti-ade." (Applause.) 

The term " Frosty Sons of Thunder " was derived from a speech in Congress 
hj Hon. Charles Ogle, of Somerset County, in 1845, against the extravagance 
of the Government at that time. He designated his constituency as the 'frosty 
sons of thunder' and in their name assailed the display of so much gold and 
silver on the tables at one of the President's receptions. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Senator Critchfield and My Fellow Citizens : It gives me sincere pleas- 
ure to meet my friends and fellow citizens of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, 
in my State, city and home. You have traveled more than two hundred and 
fifty miles to bring to me assurances of your confidence and of your purpose to 
give the Republican Party and its glorious principles your united and hearty 
support. (Great applause.) It is not difficult to appreciate what this great 
audience, coming from a sister State, represents. You have here in this assem- 
blage one-fourth of the voting population of the Republican Party and one-fifth 
of the entire voting population of your county. (Applause.) It seems, my 
countrymen, that you are not interested in me personally, but that you have a 
deep and abiding interest in your country and your country's honor. (Great 
cheering and cries of 'Interested in McKinley, too.') It means, that you are 
deeply interested in the rightful settlement of the great National questions 
which divide us and which are to be settled by your votes and those of your 
countrymen next November. (Applause.) I am especially glad to welcome 
the citizens of Somerset County to my home. (Applause.) I recall that in 
the years of the past I have visited your mountain homes and enjoyed more 
than once your generous hospitality and I trust the future will permit me to 
again visit that delightful spot and renew our former friendly relations. Your 
spokesman says the people of your county are devoted to farming. Looking 
over this vast audience and remembering how far you are from home, I should 
think you were devoted to good politics. (Tremendous cheering.) I do not 

207 



recall a time since tae d.iys of the Civil War that there has been so mucn solici- 
tude for the rightful outcome of a National election as this year. Ail the 
people are reading, studying and informing themselves in a greater degree 
than ever before. Popular inquiry was never so great ; popular interest never 
so profound. It is gratifying, too, that the masses of our countrymen are 
seeking the right for the sake of the right that they may pursue the right. 
They want to know only what is best for the country, what will truly promote 
their own welfare, and secure the grandest results for the common good. 
(Applause.) The political situation of the country is peculiar. "We have had 
few parallels to the present political condition. There is but one political 
party which is united and that is the Republican. Discord reigns in all the 
others. Our time-honored opponent, the Democratic Party, is torn and 
divided. Two National Conventions have been held by it and two National 
tickets presented and their platforms are totally different on every sub}?ct and 
in almost every paragraph . The Populist Party has merged its organization into 
that of the Chicago Democratic and St. Louis Silver organizations, and the 
allies are for the most part harmonious except that each one has a distinct and 
different candidate for Vice President. (Great laughter and applause.) Hap- 
pily the Republican Party was never more closely united than now, both in 
fact and in spirit, and there were never better reasons for such union and never 
greater necessity for it than now. (Cheers and cries of 'That's right.') It is- 
wedded, devotedly wedded, to its principles. It stands as it has always stood,, 
for an American protective tariff which will raise enough money to conduct 
the several departments of the Government, including liberal pensions to 
Union soldiers. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') 
A tariff that will stop debts and deficiencies and make the Treasury of the 
United States once more safe and sound in every particular. (Applause.) It 
stands for a reciprocity thas seeks out the markets of the world for our 
surplus agricultural and manufacturing products without surrendering a 
single day's wages that belong to the American workingman. (Applause. ) It 
believes in preserving a home market for the American farmer, (applause) in. 
opening of the American factory for the American workingman (applause) 
and opening a foreign market wherever that can be done with profit 
to all the great interests of the United States. It is, too, for sound money 
(great cheering) every dollar worth one hundred cents (renewed cheering) 
every dollar as good as gold (continued cheering) and is opposed alike to- 
the free and unlimited coinage of silver and issuing of irredeemable paper 
money, to which the allied parties are firmly committed. (Great applause.) 
It has always kept silver at a parity with gold. It proposes to keep silver 
money in circulation and preserve side by side gold and silver and paper each 
equal to the other and none ever to be inferior to the best money known to tlie 
commercial nations of the world. (Loud cheering.) It will continue to favor 
a policy that will give work to American laborers (applause) markets to Amer- 
ican farmers (cries of 'That's what we want') and sound money to both. (Tre- 
mendous cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for MoKinley.' ) We are now convinced,, 
after three years bitter experience, whatever may have been our political 
relations in the past, of the truth of the observation of Webster made more 
than half a century ago. You may recall that he said: 'That is the truest 
American policy which shall most usefully employ American capital and Amer- 
ican labor and best sustain the whole American population. (Great applause.) 
Agriculture, commerce and manufactures will prosper together or languish 
together.' Equally true also were the words of John Quincy Adams : 'That the 

208 



gi'eat interests of an agricultural, mining and manufacturing nation are so 
linked in unison that no permanent cause of prosperity to one of them can 
operate without extending its influence to the other.' (Applause.) AVe can 
not have commercial growth and expansion without ^National and individual 
honor, "We can not have commercial prosperity without the strictest integrity 
both by Government and citizen. (Renewed applause and cries of 'That's 
right.') The financial honor of this Government is of too vast importance, Is 
entirely too sacred, to be the foot-ball of party politics. (Great applause and 
cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') The Republican Party has maintained it and ispledged 
to maintain it. It has more than once stood between good faith and dishonor 
and when it gave up the control of the Government our National honor had 
never before been so high and unquestioned. (Applause.) The Republican 
Party is pledged to maintain the credit of the Government which is intimately 
associated with its spotless name and honor and this it will do under any cir- 
cumstances and at every cost. (Great cheering.) It taxed the credit of the 
Government in the days of the war to its utmost tension to preserve the 
Government itself, which, under God, it was happily enabled to do. 2ut 
following that mighty struggle it lifted our credit higher than it had ever been 
before and m.ade it equal to that of the oldest and wealthiest nations of the 
world. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') It is pledged to maintain 
uncorrupted the currency of the country of whatever form or kind that has 
been issued by National authority. It made the old greenback as good aa 
gold and has kept it as good as gold ever since. It has maintained 
every form of American money, whether silver or paper, equal to gold, 
and it will not take a backward step. (Great applause and cries of 'Good,' 
Good.') No party ever went out of power which left so magnificent 
a record behind it as the Republican Party. (Cries of 'That's right.') 
Our great war debt was more than two-thirds paid off, our currency unques- 
tioned, our credit untarnished, the honor of the Nation unsullied, the country 
in its material conditions stronger than it had ever been before, the working- 
men better employed and better paid than ever before, with prosperity in every 
part of the Republic and in no part an idle workingman who wanted work. 
(Tremendous applause.) Consider, my fellow citizens, the advancement we 
made between 1880 and 1890, for during those years we neither had free 
trade nor free silver. (Great laughter and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') The 
marvelous progress of the country between 1880 and 1890 is worthy the 
study of all Am^erican citizens. It is the best answer to the oft-repeated 
but fallacious statement that tlie country has been suffering from the 
effects of the act of 1873 which stopped the coinage of silver. It is an un- 
answerable argument for the restoration of a protective tariff and the main- 
tenance of sound money. (Applause.) In 1880 the capital invested in manu- 
facturing in seventy-five of the leading cities of the United States waa 
$1,232,839,670. In 1890 it had reached the enormous sum of $2,900,735,884. In 
1880 the number of employes was 1,301,388, and in 1890, 2,251,134. In 1880 the 
wages earned were .$501,965,778; in 1890, $1,221,170,000 or an increase of more 
than one hundred and twenty per cent. (Great applause and cries of 'Good,' 
Good.') We were then on a gold basis and had a protective tariff. (Enthusiastic 
cheering and cries of 'That's good enough for anybody.') In 1890 the value of 
our manufacturing product was $2,711,579,899 ; in 1890, $4,860,286,837. The mining 
interests of the country produced $396,000,000 worth of products in 1880, and 
$650,000,000 in 1890. In 1880 we had 93,000 miles of railroad; in 1890, 167,740 
miles, a gain of over 73,000 miles, or nearly eighty per cent. The depo&its in 

209 



j!*vings banks were in 1880, $819,000,600 and in 1890, $1,550,000,000. These fig- 
ures can not be matched by any other government in the world. (Great 
Ci«eering.) During these years of wonderful growth and phenomenal advance- 
ment, unrivaled anywhere, our currency was on a gold basis and our revenue 
legislation framed on the protective principle. In 1880 the farm values of the 
United States amounted to $12,104,000,000, and in 1890 to $15,962,000,000. 
•(/ipphiuse.) In every department of human activity there w^as a steady gain 
snd an increased and most remarkable prosperity. What a tribute to American 
jffogress ! What a marvelous achievement in a single decade by the labor, the 
Ktilland the enterprise of the American people! All this was secured under 
ear present financial system, which we are asked to surrender, and all this 
iras under the wise industrial policy which we surrendered in 1892. (Cries of 
Tlie people were badly fooled.') The duty of the people of this country is to 
jireserve the one and restore the other. (Great applause and 'Maine has done 
■ife, and the other States will do in November.') May a kind Providence which 
lias never forsaken our people guide us in this perilous time in the pathway of 
-futy, right and honor! (Cries of 'Amen,' 'Amen.') I thank you for this call 
»nd it will give me great pleasure to shake hands with every one of you, if that 
Je your wish." (Great cheering. 

THE STEEL WORKERS OF BRADDOCK. 

The steel" workers of the Edgar Thompson Plant at Braddock, Pennsyl- 
vania, came to Canton on Thursday, September 17th, to extend their congrat- 
ulations to Major McKinley and to assure him of their hearty support in the 
eampaign and at the polls in November. They arrived over the Pennsylvania 
Lines on a special train run in three sections of twelve coaches each. The first 
af these arrived about 11 :40 and the others shortly afterward. The coaches 
were crowded and it is estimated that nearly 3,000 people were in the delega- 
;;aon. The Sheridan Sabre Band, which had created such a favorable impression in 
Uanton before when it came with one of the delegations, was with this com- 
^ny. The St. Thomas Band was also with the visitors and its stirring strains 
added to the enthusiasm of the demonstration. Canton Troop and the 
©itizens' Reception Committee were at the depot to greet the delegation and 
% parade was formed to the McKinley home. It was organized in the following 
wider: Members of the G. A. E., employed by the Company, leading ; Clerical 
Department, R. G. Campbell ; Chemical Department, J. V. Roller ; Electrical 
Department, J. Flinn ; Steel Works Mechanical Department, W. J. Meigs ; Con- 
certing Department, W. G. Rogers ; Blooming Department, Henry Shepard ; 
Bail Department, John Taylor; Finishing Department, Robert Graham; 
Foundry Department, N. Johnson ; Furnaces and Mechanical Department, A. L. 
Jackson ; Boiler Department, Nicholas Cox ; Stockyards Department, George 
Robinson ; Carpenters, C. Winter ; Bricklayers, George Eadie ; Transportation 
Department, John O'Connell; Labor Department, Thomas Allison. There 
was much cheering along the line, and when Major McKinley appeared on 
the porch, in charge of the Committee, there was a grand ovation given him 
3>efore J. L. Jones, of the Clerical Department of the Edgar Thompson Com- 
pany was presented as spokesman for the delegation, and said: 

"Major McKinley: We come from the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, 
•fts a delegation of employes of the great Edgar Thompson Steel Works, of all 
■solors and creeds, not as Republicans or Democrats. We have thrown old 
larty affiliations aside, as in the days of '61 and '65. Judas sold his Master for 

210 



thirty pieces of silver, ratio unknown. Arnold tried to sell his country for a 
price and we recognize the fact that we have men in our country to-day who 
would bring ruin and dishonor on our flag and Nation for sixteen ounces of 
silver. Major, we will not have it ! No party which will degrade the honor of 
the Nation shall have our votes ; no party that says that the National Govern- 
ment is not supreme shall have our support and the man who tries to arraj 
masses against classes will be treated with the contempt he deserves. Recog- 
nizing the honest dignity of honest labor, we recognize no man as our superior. 
We look to you, the soldier, statesman and patriot, one who has always been 
the true friend of the workingmen, one who knows their wants; who has said 
that honest labor should have a chance through honest toil to earn an honest 
dollar. Major, in behalf of the men here assembled, I bid you godspeed, and 
we will meet you again on the 4th of March, 1897, on Pennsylvania Avenue,] 
and as part of your escort march with you to the Capitol and back to the 
"White House. With our friend and comrade, William McKinley in the Pres- 
idential chair, a loyal Congress to hold up his hands, and a strong protective 
tariff in working order, the crown of thorns and cross of gold and 16 to 1 
buried in the potters' field forever, then will peace and prosperity reign." 
(Applause.) 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Jones and my Fellow-Citizens : Many delegations have waited upon 
me during the last two months. All have been welcome and every visit has 
been inspiring, but somehow when an assemblage of workingmen comes to pay 
me a visit, it attracts my interest and touches my heart more than anything 
else. (Cheers.) I bid you welcome to my city and home. I can well ap- 
preciate why the workingmen of this country should have a deep and profound 
interest in the outcome of the present National contest. (Crieg of 'We have.') 
I can not fail to remember that one thing ^mich stands between your labor and 
the labor of Europe— the one thing which stands between your workshops 
and those of the old world, is a wise, patriotic, American protective policy. (Great 
cheering, .and cries of 'Eight ycJTI are.') I am very glad to have this large 
delegation of the employes of the great Edgar Thompson Steei Works, of 
Braddock, Pennsylvania, at my home. (Apj)Iause and cries of 'We are gIaZ to 
be here.') You have come, as your spokesman h-as stated, to attest your good 
wjll and that of your fellow citizens whom you represent. I am glad to have 
you come in the manner your spokesman has described — representing all 
■creeds, all colors and all classes — men who belong to the Republican Party and 
those who have heretofore belonged to other parties now acting together for 
what tney believe to be the common good. (Applause and cries orf 'What's 
the matter with McKinley? He's all right.') This is distinctively the people's 
year, when old lines are effaced and men heretofore opposed meet upon a 
•common platform to sustain the honor of our country. (Applause.) Political 
parties are only the agents of the people. They are only what the people make 
them and are entitled to their confidence only so lon^ as tliey serve tlieir 
highest anc Xst interests. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') We are all 
concerned, no matter what may be our occupations, in our country's welfare. 
(Cries f That's so.') Whatever political views we may have; however we 
may differ on minor questions of public policy, we are all of one mind in the 
conviction that something or otlier is the matter wi?h the country. (Applause 
-and cries of 'What's the matter with McKinley? He's all right.') We may 

211 



differ in our diagnosis ; we may differ about the ti-eatment in detail, but we do 
uot disagree upon what is essential in the first instance to the restoration of 
the better conditions of the past. One thing above all else that is wanted at 
this juncture is the return of business confidence. (Applause and ones of 
'Correct') Its absence is our fundamental trouble. Upon that there can not 
be two opinions, and that, my fellow citizens, no class of people know better 
than YOU We know the very day and the hour when this confidence was 
first shaken and from that hour distrust and doubt have hung like a pall 
over the country. It has been aggravated from a variety of causes, but none 
greater than the assault which has been made by the allied political or- 
ganizations upon tho credit and currency of the country. (Applause and 
crieg of 'That's right.') This new menace must be averted before we can hope 
to have any permanent prosperity. We know that the present monetary 
standai-d has not stood in the way of our prosperity in the past. (Cries of 'No,' 
'Iso •; ' free trade has.') You know that we were prosperous in 1892 and had I en 
for the preceding ten years. You know that we have not seen any measure 
of real prosperity since. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') Business is 
so sensitive, so quick to scent danger, that any legislation or proposed legis- 
lation or change of policy which would derange, alter or unsettle values is felt 
long before the apprehended blow is given. So that from the very hour iC wti5 
determined by the American people that tht^ Republican Party, which with but 
a single interruption had been in control of the Government for more than thirty 
years, Was to go out of power and another party with a different policy was- 
to come in, that very moment every business man of the country assumed an 
attitude of waiting and of fear and anxiety. (Applause and cries of 'What's 
the matter with McKiNLEY?' 'He's all right.') While business men were 
waiting to know exactly what legislation was to be, business was languishing 
from one end of the country to the other and labor was without work. Then 
we commenced living from hand to mouth and we have been living from hand 
to mouth ever since. (Great applause and cries of 'We have that.') As an old 
comrade said to me a few days ago 'the distance seems to be getting greater with 
each succeeding year.' (Laughter and applause.) According to a census i-ecently 
taken by a newspaper in New York it appears that in July, 1892, 577 employers of 
labor in the United States gave work ^o 114,231 1- mds. How was it in July, 1896? 
Cries of 'Not so good.' ) The same employer gave work to 78,700 hands ; 35,- 
o31 men who had been employed in 1892 were out of employment in 1896 and in 
a state of idleness resulting in a loss of more than thirty per cent to labor. In 
July, 1892, the wages to these 114,231 hands amounted to $3,927,000. In July, 1896, 
that to the 78,700 hands amounted to only $2,460,712, a loss to labor in a single 
month in those establishments of $1,457,000, or forty per cent. (A voice- 
♦Pennsylvania knows it.') Yes, and Pennsylvania, like all the rest of the coun- 
try, will vote this year with a full knowledge of existing conditions. (Cries of 
'Eight, Right.' ) In 1892, the monthly average of wages paid-in these establish- 
ments was $34.50; in 1896, only $31.0a My countrymen, I am one of those 
Americans who believe that the American workshop should be protected as far 
as possible from the foreign workshop, to the end that American workingmen 
(applause) may be constantly employed, and so protected, too, as to be em- 
ployed at American wages. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'What's tlie 
matter with McKinley ?' 'He's all right.') Nor do I want products cheapened 
at the expense of American manhood (applause) nor do I think that it is 
economy to buy goods cheaply abroad if it thereby enforces idleness a1 home. 
(Renewed applause. ) Such goods are the dearest that the American people 



212 



can buy. (Cries of 'Right you are, Major.') James G. Blaine (applause) that 
gifted statesman, spoke words of wisdom in 1884, which seem singularly appli- 
cable to our present situation and to the present hour. He said : 'A policy 
that would abandon the field of home trade must prove disastrous to the 
mechanics and workingmen of the United States. Wages are unjustly reduced 
when an industrous man is notable by his earnings to live in comfort, educate 
his children and save a sufficient amount for the necessities of age. The 
reduction of wages inevitably consequent upon throwing our home market 
open to the world would deprive the workingmen of the United States of the 
power to do this. It would prove a great calamity to our country. It would 
produce a conflict between the poor and the rich and in the sorrowful degra- 
dation of labor would plant the seeds of public danger. The Republican Party 
has steadily aimed to maintain just relations between labor and capital — 
guarding with care the rights of each. A conflict between the two has always 
led in the past and will always lead in the future to the injury of both. (Loud 
applause.) Labor is indispensable to the creation and profitable use of capital 
and capital increases the efficiency and value of labor. Whoever arrays the 
one against the other is an enemy of both. (Applause.) That policy is wisest 
and best which harmonizes the two on the basis of absolute justice. The Re- 
publican Party has protected the free labor of America so that its compensation 
is larger than is realized in any other country. (Great applause and cries of 
'Hurrah for McKinley.') But, my countrymen, as if the business conditions 
were not bad enough and hard enough to bear, we have thrust upon us at this 
most critical time in the business affairs of the Nation, a proposition to debase 
the currency of the country and undermine its public credit. We know what 
partial free trade has done for the labor of the United States. It has diminish- 
ed its employment and earnings. We do not propose now to inaugurate a 
currency system that will cheat labor in its pay. The laboring men of this 
country, whenever they give a day's work to their employers, want to be paid 
m full dollars good everywhere in the world. (Great cheering aud cries of 
'McKiNLET is all right.') We want in this country good work, good wages and 
good money. (Applause.) We want to continue our good government with its 
generous privileges and matchless opportunities and want it to be a govern- 
ment where law is supreme over all (cheers) and for the equal benefit of all. 
(Renewed cheering.) My fellow citizens, it is gratifying to me to be assured 
by your spokesman and my old comrade — it will be inspiring to the whole coun- 
country— that the voice of labor here to-day declares that no party which 
degrades the honor of the Nation, no party which stands opposed to law and 
order, or which seeks to array what it calls 'the masses against the classes,' 
shall receive its vote and support. (Great cheering and cries of 'That's right,' 
and 'Hurrah for McKinley.') Golden words are these and they wiU strike 
a chord of sympathy in every American home where virtue dwells and 
truth abides. (Applause.) We have this year resting upon us as citizens a 
grave responsibility. The country has never failed or faltered in the past to 
meet every crisis. It will not falter or fail now to uphold the dignity and 
independence of labor and the honor and stability of the Government that it 
may still further exalt the American name. (Applause.) I thank you again 
for this call and for the patriotic sentiments which have been so eloquently 
expressed by your spokesman. To have the hearty support of the workingmen 
of the United States is indeed an honor for which I thank you, in the name of 
the cause that I represent, and it is only another evidence of the wisdom and 
Btrength of free government. May God bring to you and to your homes the 

213 



cheer of contentment. (Great applause.) It will give mo pleasure to meet 
and greot each of you i)ersonally." (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'Hurrah 
for McKiNLEY, the next President.') 

THE STARK COUNTY CAMPAIGN OPENING. 

On Friday, September 18th, the Republican campaign was formally opened 
at Canton with the largest political rally in the history of the State of Ohio. 
At noon the various railroads leading into Canton reported to the Evening 
Repository that they had carried into the city 50,000 passengers. Added to 
these were other thousands who had come by the electric street car line 
from Massillon and in carriages, buggies, wagons, bicycles, and other convey- 
ances from all parts of Stark and adjoining counties. With the Republican 
candidate in the city, naturally the visiting delegations could not refrain from 
making many calls at the McKinley residence. So insistent did their demands 
come for speeches that the Republican standard bearer was forced to respond 
to some of them. Among those who thus called were the Republicans of Unity 
Township, Columbiana County; the Americus Club of Pittsburg; the Elkins 
Cadets, of Wheeling; the delegations from Akron; the Building and Trades 
Council of Columbus ; the Republicans of Salem, Columbiana County ; the 
delegation from Fairfield, Columbiana County; the overflow from the big 
tent, in which Hon. John M. Thukstox, Senator from Nebraska, Hon. Shelby 
M. CuLLOM, Senator from Illinois, Hon. James T. McCleary, a Representative 
in Congress from Minnesota, and Hon. Daniel H. Hastings, Governor of Penn- 
sylvania, spoke to immense audiences ; and the Sound Money Club of the Root 
& McBride Co. wholesale house of Cleveland. Major McKinley greeted 
these callers from the reviewing stand on his lawn and spoke brieflly to 
each of them. These speeches were the only part the Major took in the dem- 
onstration except that he obliged the thousands of visitors by riding at the 
head of the procession in the afternoon from the center of the column to his 
residence and at night reviewed from his home the demonstration in his honor. 
Senator Thurston, Congressman McCleary, Governor Hastings and others 
also made brief addresses from the reviewing stand in front of his residence. 

Major McKinley's Response to Columbus Callers. 

To the greetings of the Building and Trades delegation from Columbus, 
Major McKinley responded as follows : 

"My Fellow Citizens op Columbus: I have been very deeply and pro- 
foundly touched by the messsage which your spokesman brings to me as your 
representative speaking for the great building and trade occupations of the 
Capital City. I recall the four years I spent in your city and I cherish them 
as among the dearest and pleasantest of my life. (Cheers.) I can not recall an 
hour during my incumbency of the office of Governor that I did not feel that I 
had the sympathy, encouragement and friendship of the workingmen of the 
city of Columbus. (Great applause and cries of 'We are with you yet.') Your 
spokesman has well said that there are two questions of supreme moment to 
the American people — the one is work (applause) and the other is pay. (Re- 
newed applause, and cries of 'That's right.') Our trouble to day in this coun- 
try is that we have not enough work. (Cries of 'That's right.') And all of us, 
no matter to what political party we have belonged in the past, are going to 
vote for that policy which will give to the American workingman more work. 

214 



(Great cheering <and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') ^Ve have lost a good 
deal of work in the last four years and we want to get it back. (Cries of 'We 
want to keep it.') Yes, we want to keep it, and when we get it back we propose 
that our work shall be paid for in the best dollars known to the commercial 
world. (Tremendous applause.) We do not propose to vote in favor of a 
money the value of which we will have to ascertain every morning by consult- 
ing the market columns of the newspapers. (Great cheering and laughter.) 
We have had no such money as that in the past, during the past sixteen years 
at least, and we do not propose to enter upon such an experiment now. 
(Applause and cries of 'Our money is good enough.') We have had since 1879 
gold, silver and paper, every dollar the equal of the other and all equal to the 
best in the world (cheers and cries of 'That's right') and we propose to keep 
all of our money that way. (Renewed cheering.) And we propose another 
thing, my fellow citizens, no matter what may be our vocations in life, we 
propose to indignantly repel the idea of classes in the United States. Tre- 
mendous applause and crie^ of 'amen, 'amen.') Every man in this country is 
as good as any other man. (Great cheering and hurrahs for KcKinley.) 
Every man in this country has equal opportunities and equal privileges with 
any other, (xipplause and cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') And, my fellow citizens, the 
man or the party that would seek to array labor against captial and capital 
against labor is an enemy of both. (Great cheering.) I thank you, my coun- 
trymen, for this call. I appreciate the good will of the men representing tlie 
great building trades of the city of Columbus." (Great applause.) 

THE SALEfl DELEGATION. 

The deleg<ition from Salem, Columbiana County, Ohio, was headed bj 
Judge Jacob A. Ambler, In speaking for them he said: 

" Major McKiNLEY : About one thousand, of your old friends and constito- 
ents of Salem came to Canton to-day to call on you and say that the confidence 
they have reposed in you still continues. The lateness of the train prevented 
their meeting you this forenoon, and being unused to larger places, part of 
them have been lost, but those we could find have called upon you, and desir© 
me to say that now, as always heretofore, they have confidence in you and will 
stand by you at the coming election. They, proud of the record you have 
made as a statesman and of the prominence you have attained, desire to 
express their high regard for you, their good will toward you and wish youi 
godspeed and will be obliged if you speak a word to them," (Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Judge Ambler AND My Fellow Citizens: It is always very touching t» 
me to meet my fellow citizens who, more than twenty years ago, when I was s 
young man, expressed their faith in me by sending me to Congress, (Applause.) 
Somehow there is something close and sacred about our early friendships — and 
our early political friendships are no exception — and when listening to Judge 
Ambler, a hundred memories rushed through my mind, I recall the first visit 
I made to Salem ; I recall the names of men who were kind and generous and 
sympathetic and encouraging, and I shall never forget them so long as I live- 
There was not a spot of ground in all this Congressional District that gave rao 
more loyal support than the Republicans of Perry Township. (Great cheer- 
ing and cries of 'We will do it again in November.') Judge Ambleb was mj 
predecessor in Congress. I remember to have visited him once while he was » 

215 



member of the House. In those days a member was permitted to invite a 
stranger to come on the floor and he invited me to sit in his seat and was kind 
enough to say to me then that some time or other, at no distant day, he 
thought I would fill his place in the National House of Eepresentatives. (Great 
applause. ) Judge Ambler has been kind and generous to me ever since in every 
political struggle in which I have been engaged. He has not only been my 
political but my personal friend. This is also true of scores and hundreds of 
other citizens of Salem and Perry Township, and I want to thank you all most 
heartily and sincerely for having come to Canton to-day. (Cheers.) I regard 
it as a special compliment to myself that you are here in such vast numbers 
and it evidences to me that the people of your city and township mean this year, 
as in all the years of the past, to stand by American principles, which embrace 
the good of the country and the honor of the flag. (Great applause. ) I am glad 
to have you here on my lawn— that is, it used to be a lawn. (Great laughter.) 
I am glad to have you at my home. You have done me honor for more than 
twenty years and rest assured I heartily thank you all." (Great cheering.) 

Major McKinley's Response to the Americus Club. 

To the Americus Club, of Pittsburg, which called to tender personal 
respects. Major MoKinley said ; 

"Governor Hastings, Gentlemex or the Americus Club and My Fellow- 
Citizens: I appreciate more than I can find words to express the compliment 
and honor of this call from the citizens of a neighboring State. I am glad to 
give you welcome to Canton and my home. (Applause.) I am glad to give 
welcome to the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, General Hastings, 
(cheers) and if he can secure for the Kepublican National ticket as large a 
majority as he secured for himself (laughter and applause) we will be entirely 
satisfied here in Ohio (great cheering) for I believe that he received the largest 
majority that was ever given to any candidate for any office in the history of 
your State. (Applause. ) I do not appear, my fellow citizens, to make a speech 
to you, but only to express my personal gratification that the famous Americus 
Club, and the business men who stand behind it, sliould have turned aside 
from their usual occupations to come to our city on this great opening day of 
our campaign and I want all of you to feel that I regard it as a sjjecial honor and 
compliment to me to have you with us. (Great cheering.) I trust that all 
our people will give you a most generous and hospitable welcome, yes, I am sure 
they will, and I wish all of you a safe return to your homes after the day's 
doings are over." (Great applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') 

riajor ricKinley's Response to the Unity Delegation. 

A large delegation came from Unity, Columbiana County, who could not be 
restrained in their determination to call on Major McKinley personally. They 
accoi'dingly marched to his home and assembled on the historic lawn where 
they were presented by Hon. Joseph I. Brittain, of East Palestine, in a brief 
but appropriate speech, to which Major McKinley responded as follows: 

"Mr. Brittain and Fellow Citizens of Unity Township: It gives me 
gi*eat pleasure to greet you in this city and at my home. I recall with most 
pleasant and grateful recollection the relations which we sustained for so many 
years, when you did me the honor to keep me in the National House of Repre- 
sentatives. I think I can truthfully say that I have met most of you more than 

216 



once in your homes in Uuiiy Tuwnahip and it is only fair after these twenty 
years that you should return my frequent calls upon you. (Great laughter and 
applause.) I recollect with especial satisfaction that in all those contests your 
township was always faithful to the cause which for the moment I represented 
and never faltered in its devotion to Republican principles. This year, my 
fellow citizens, these principles are dearer to the American people, more indis- 
pensable to the prosperity of the American i^eople, if that be possible, than 
they have ever been before, and I am glad to receive from your spokesman the 
assurance that the people of Unity Township now, as in all the years that are past, 
stand faithfully by the great doctrines of the Republican Party. (Great ap- 
plause.) I thank you for the pleasure and honor of this call. I will not under- 
take to make a speech to you, as you have the richest of rich feasts before you 
to-day. Some of the most distinguished men of the country will present to 
you the political questions that divide the great parties and I am sure you 
will be glad to hear them. I only appear that I may thank you, as I do from 
the bottom of my heart, for your assurances of support and good will." (Great 
cheering.) 

THE ELKINS CADET5. 

While Major McKinley was talking to the Unity contingent, the Elkins 
Cadets, consisting of one hundred young men in uniform, from Wheeling, W. 
Ya., headed by their drum corps, came up. W. 0. Estler, of the Cadets, 
introduced W. H. Rinehart, a prominent business man of Wheeling, who had 
voted the Democratic ticket from 1876 to 1896, but who has now joined heartily 
with the Republicans. Mr. Rinehart was frequently applauded and made the 
following reference to Senator Elkins : "One who is much abler than I; one 
whose slioe latchet I am unworthy to unloose ; he who is the patron saint of this 
political organization was to have stood in my place to-day. Through force of 
circumstances he is prevented from being with us, but he sends this message: 
'Elkins Cadets, Wheeling, W. Va. : Salute the next President and say I would 
gladly have presented you to him, but stayed at home to swell his certain 
majority in the Mountain State in November. Stephen B. Elkins.' " 

The address was greeted wath cheers from the Cadets and crowds of others 
present. Major McKinley mounted a chair to respond and never had he a 
more demonstrative and appreciative crowd of callers. They interrupted him 
with cheers and applause every moment. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"Gentlemen of the Elkins Club op Wheeling, West Virginia: It gives 
me great pleasure to meet and greet you here at my home, and I can not over- 
state the satisfaction which I feel because of the gracious messages that have 
been delivered to me by your spokesman. I feel sui-e sure that AVest Virginia 
in 1896, as in 1894, will give her vote for the Republican cause and the Republi- 
can ticket. (Applause.) I am glad to know that in your organization are gen- 
tlemen who have hitherto been associated with the Democratic Party. This is 
a happy year, it seems to me, for the people of the United States, when patriot- 
ism takes the place of partyism, and when men are no longer moved by 
passion and prejudice, but are looking only to the largest good for the gi-eatest 
number. I note with satisfaction, too, that the old sectional lines have been 
almost entirely effaced ; those old lines of bitterness, those old lines of hate, 
those old lines of prejudice, have all, or nearly all, been obliterated ; and me« 

217 



who fought on the one side and men who fought on the other in the late Civi 
War are now standing upon the same platform contending for National honor, 
for the public faith and for the integi-ity of oiir free institutions. (Tremendous- 
applause.) It is a good omen, I feel sure, for our Republic, and it will teach all 
the world that there are no longer any sectional divisions in the United States ; 
that the men of the South and the men of the North will fight together here- 
after under one flag for the preservation of the Government of the United 
States and the best welfare of the American people. (Continuous applause.) 
You have a great State— your little Mountain State. In the last dozen years, 
down to 1892, you had showTi something of your wonderful resources in 
minerals for so small a State, for you have apparently a larger deposit of coal, of 
iron and of other minerals than in any other like area in the United States. 
There is no State in the American Union that needs protection any more 
than the State of West Virginia. (Tremendous applause and hurrahs for 
McKiNLEY.) It was on the protective issue that you won your splendid 
victory in 1894 (cries of 'That's right, and we'll do it again!') and sent the 
honorable gentleman whose name you bear to the Senate of the United States., 
(Applause.) You not only, my fellow citizens, require a protective tariff, 
but you require with all thg rest of the country an honest dollar with which 
to measure the exchanges of the people. (Loud and continuous cheering.) We 
have it now and we propose to keep it. (Applause and cries of 'You bet we 
will.') This is the contention that is one of the issues on which we fight — as to 
whether our money shall be maintained as sacredly as our flag, or whether it 
shall be degi-aded. (Tremendous applause and a voice — 'It will be all right 
when McKixLEY is President.') I thank you for the compliment and courtesy 
of this call, members of the Elkins Cadets, and I beg that you convey to the 
distinguished gentlemen, whose name you bear, my appreciation of the splendit". 
services he is rendering his own State in his efforts to keep it firmly in the Re- 
publican column. It will give me pleasure, if possible, to shabe hands with 
each one of this large and excellent Club." (Applause and an enthusiastic 
volley of cheers for McKixley, the next President.) 

flajor flcKinley's Response to the Fairfield Delegation. 

A delegation from Fairfield Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, called at 
the McKinley home and was addressed by the Major as follows: 

"Mr. Chairman and My Fellow Citizens: It gives me much pleasure 
to meet my old friends of Fairfield Township, Columbiana County. Among 
my earliest political recollections I recall the village of Columbiana. One of 
the earliest political speeches I ever made was in your town. (Cheers.) 
Then I remember, too, that in the fourteen years I was a Representative in Con- 
gress, I always had the encouragement, sympathy and support of the good 
citizens of your township. (Applause. ) We are battling this year in the same 
cause that we have constantly battled for during the last twenty years — protec- 
tion and sound money. We have the same principles to contend for now as we 
had then. The Republican Party stands this year, as it has always stood, for 
the country and the country's honor, (Great cheering and cries of 'That's 
right.') It is opposed to National dishonor and repudiation in whatever form 
they may come and from whatever quarter they may come. (Applause.) It 
believes in good, sound, honest dollars (cheers) dollars worth a hundred cents, 
each every day of the week and every month of the year ; dollars that are not only 
good in our own country, but good wherever trade goes. (Loud applause and 

218 



ries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') The Republican Party stands, too, this year, 
as it has stood in the past, for an American protective system (great applause) 
a system that serves our own people rather than the interests of the alien and 
the stranger who live beyond our shores. (Great applause.) It stands for a 
policy that gives to American citizenship the widest and broadest opportunity 
to work at American wages and to the farmers of the United States the best 
home market that can be found anywhere in the world. (Great cheering.) 
But, my fellow citizens, this is not my day to make a speech. There are orators 
here who will speak to you, and I only come now that I may make suitable 
recognition of this friendly call on the part of my old friends and constituents 
who have for so many years manifested their devotion to the Republican cause 
and to me personally." (Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response to the Great Procession. 

As the great parade passed the McKinley home at night, Major and Mrs. 
McKinley, Miss Grace McKinley. Senator Thurston and wife, Mrs. Marshai* 
Barber, Miss Mary Barber, Col. "VY. ^V. Peabody and Judge Howard Ferris, 
of Cincinnati, and Messrs. Abxer McKinley, Joseph P. Smith, "W. C. Brown 
James McKinley, and several representatives of the press, occupied an im- 
provised reviewing stand in the front yard. Ten thousand people crowded 
about, and when the long line of marchers passed the crowd cried "McKinley" 
so continuously that he felt obliged to respond. He said : 

"My Fellow Citizens: It is needless for me to say that I have been very 
glad to witness this splendid demonstration of Republican spirit and purpose 
here in the city of Canton to-day and to-night. I have been very glad to wel- 
come from every part of the State and from neighboring States, citizens who 
have come here to participate in the opening of our campaign, and I feel like 
congratulating my fellow citizens of Canton and my fellow Republicans every- 
where upon the magnificent success of this initial Republican meeting. I will 
not undertake to make a speech, but I will do what is very much better. I will 
present to you one of our most distinguished United States Senators, whose 
voice has been heard already in so many States of the Union this year, and will 
be heard in more. It is my very great pleasure to present to this audience for 
a few minutes, Hon. John M. Thurston of Nebraska." (Continued cheering.) 

Senator Thurston's Remarks. 

"My Friends and Fellow Citizens: I have no doubt as to how Ohio will 
speak in this campaign. There are enough people within the Republican fold 
in the city of Canton to-day to carry the State of Ohio against all the other 
parties (tremendous cheering) and when this country does speak, my country- 
men, in the year 1896, it will speak in the manner, without regard to political 
parties, of patriots and Americans. (Great applause.) The people of the coun- 
try who sacrificed so much and dared so much to perpetuate this glorious Union 
will see to it that the honor and integrity of our country is maintained in the 
eyes of the whole civilized world. My countrymen, let not your hearts be 
troubled. This is a Republican year. (Applause.) The people of this country 
love valor and (pointing to McKinley) they find it here. (Tremendous cheering. ) 
The people of this country love honest manhood and they find it here. (Con- 
tinuous applause.) They love that statesman who knows how to legislate for 
the people and they find him here. (Renewed cheering.) They love that 

219 



patriot who Lolds the honor of the Nation as high as the flag and they find hinj 
here. (Applause.) This election is already won. William MoKinley is to be 
the next President of the United States." (Great and long continued ap- 
plause.) 

ALLEGHENY COUNTY WORKINQHEN. 

The first delegation to arrive from the East, Saturday morning, September 
19th, was scheduled from Hulton, Pennsylvania. It brought people from 
Verona, Oakmont, and other towns of Allegheny County. The special train 
over the Pennsylvania Lines brought nearly a thousand people and 
two bands. It was raining heavily when they arrived and they were hurried to 
the Grand Opera House. Major McKixley, accompanied by Senator Cullom, of 
Illinois, received the crowd in that building. Dr. C. M. Campbell, of Oakmont, 
spoke on behalf of the citizens in general. He told how tired the people 
of Pennsylvania are of the present conditions and of the confidence they have 
in Major McKinley and the Eepublican Party. Gen. A. C. Litchfield, of 
Bright Post No. 380, spoke happily on behalf the old soldiers and expressed 
their confidence in and gave assurances of their support of Major McKinley. 

flajor ricKinley's Response. 

"My Comrades and Fellow Citizens: It gives me great gratification to 
meet at my home my fellow citizens and old comrades in the war from 
Allegheny County and the State of Pennsylvania. I appreciate the kind and 
generous messages which have been presented to me in your behalf, and am 
glad to be assured that in Allegheny County, in the year 1896, you are faithful 
to Republican principles and are deeply interested in the success of the Repub- 
lican cause. No State in the Union knows more about a protective tariS than 
the State of Pennsylvania. No State in the Union has felt its blessings more 
than yours. No State in the Union has suffered more from its withdrawal 
than yours, and no part of our population has suffered so much under a revenue 
tariff policy as the laboring people of the country. I think you want the 
return of that splendid protective policy under which for more than thirty 
years, we enjoyed prosperity and under which we made this the greatest min- 
ing, the greatest manufacturing, and the greatest farming Nation in the world. 
(Applause.) The manufacturers of this coun-try were then enabled to pay 
better wages than were paid in any other country of the world and better 
wages than were ever paid under a revenue tariff policy in the history of our 
country. ^(Applause ) I am one of those Americans who believe that the 
American workshop should be protected against the foreign workshop, (Tre- 
mendous applause. ) I believe that the American workingmen should be defend- 
ed by a wise and judicious protective policy against the underpaid workingmen 
of the old world. (Renewed cheering.) In a word, I believe that this country 
is ours (applause) and that we, first of all, are entitled to enjoy its privi- 
leges and its blessings. The first thing we want in this country is plenty to 
do. (Tremendous applause.) We want neither short work nor short dollars 
in the United States. (Cries of 'You are right.') We want neither free trade 
nor free silver in the United States. (Apphiuse and tooting of horns.) We 
want an opportunity to work and when we have improved that opportunity, 
we want to be paid in dollars that are worth as much the week or year after they 
are received as on theday of their receipt. (Applause.) Free trade has cheated 
you in your wages (cries of 'You are right it has') and you do not propose 

220 



to permit free silver to cheat you in your pay. (Applause.) I am glad to meet 
my comrades of the war, whose cause has been so eloquently presented here 
this morning. (Applause.) "We fight our battles now with ballots instead 
of with bullets. (Cries of 'Hear, "Hear,' and 'Hurrah for McKinley.') The only 
force needed in this country now is that of reason, intelligence and patriotism. 
(Applause.) With this we are bound to achieve avictory next November. I am 
glad to meet and greet you all this morning and I am sure you will excuse 
me from making a longer speech, because there are delegations waiting on me 
to whom I must say a word. AVe have with us this morning one of tlie most 
distinguished citizens of the United States (looking around)— I did not know 
but that he had escaped (laughter) the Senator of the State of Illinois, "well 
known to all of you, the Hon. Shelby M. Ccllom." (Tremendous applause.) 

CARNEGIE EMPLOYES AT CANTON. 

While the Hulton reception was in progress on Saturday morning, Septem- 
ber 19th, the employes of the Carnegie City Mills, of Pittsbui-g, Pennsylvania, 
came to the Opera House, and a reception to them followed in the same hall. 
While the first section was waiting for the second the time was filled in with an 
impromptu address by Alderman Koble, of Chicago, a former Allegheny man, 
and by several songs led by Chaplain Loziek. AVhen ]Ma]or McKixley appeared 
upon the stage to greet this delegation the applause was deafening, the cheers 
and hurrahs of the enthusiastic men being added to by blasts from hundreds 
of tin horns. The greetings of the party were presented by Mr. L. T. Brown, 
Superintendent of the Carnegie City Mills. The employes of the Carnegie 
Steel Mills, located in Pittsburgh and the Keystone Bridge Company, owned by 
the Carnegie Company, arrived in Canton about 11:00 o'clock, in two sections 
closely following each other. The total number of visitors from the Carnegie 
plants aggregated over 1,500 persons. AU wore badges with the inscription 
"Carnegie City Mills." The first section to arrive was the Thirty-third Street 
Mill employes with fourteen coaches. They had the Sheridan S/ibre Band along. 
L. T. Browx, Superintendent of the miU, was Captain. The Twenty-second 
Street Mill employes followed on the second section. There were ten coaches 
and 600 people. Kelley's Band did escort duty and Joseph Rigley was Mar.-hal. 
The Keystone Bridge Company came on the second section and ArcJCSTCS 
LoFDREN acted as Captain. The Reception Committee escorted the delegation 
to the Grand Opera House where Major McKixley spoke to them as follows: 

riajorncKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Brown AND My Fellow Citizens : Nothing moves me more deeply 
than to have the assurances of support which I am daily receiving from the 
men in the United States who toil. To have as allies in this great contest for 
the honor and prosperity of the country the workingmen in the United States 
is indeed a crown to any cause. You have but one aim in the use of your 
ballots and that is to secure the highest and greatest good to the people of the 
United States. (Applause.) This is what the ballot is for and it is for tl..> 
accomplishment of this that you will use the ballot this year. We have had 
in this country for three years past an experience under two contending 
National policies. Most of the men who sit before me to-day never had ai-y 
experience under but the one policy until within the last four years. \ ou have 
now tried them both. You have tried the protective policy of the Republican 
Party and you have tried the free trade revenue tariff policy of the Democratic 

221 



Party. Which do you like best ? (Cries of 'Protection,' and tooting of horns.) 
If it is protection you prefer there is just oneway to get it and that is to vote 
for it. (Cries of 'Vote for McKixley, that's what we'll do.') Under the 
Republican protective policy we enjoyed for more than thirty years the most 
marvelous prosperity that has ever been given to any nation of the world. "We 
not only had individual prosperity but we had National prosperity and during 
all those tliirty years, while we were building up great industries, to furnish 
employment to American labor at American wages— all the time we were doing , 
that, we were collecting under that tariff policy ample revenue for current ex- 
penses and a surplus revenue to pay off the public debt. (Applause.) And 
froan 1879 down to 1893 this Government had been a debt-paying and not a 
debt-making Government. (Applause.) But I need not discuss to a Pennsylva- 
nia audience this great American principle. You are familiar with it. It is writ- 
ten in your hearts ; it has been exemplified in your happy homes ; it has brought 
cheer and contentment to your families, and you know it. (Cries of 'That's 
right.') And knowing it, you will vote this yearwith full experience. Then, too, 
my countrymen, we have presented to us a very dangerous peril to the country 
—a proposition to enter upon the free and independent and unlimited coinage 
of silver and the issuing of irredeemable paper money. This proposition simply 
means that as our labor has been degraded by free trade, so the wages of our 
countrymen shall be degraded by free silver and inflated currency, and as we 
are against free trade, we will be against free silver. (Applause and tooting of 
horns.) Now, just one word more. What we want in this country is that 
every man who seeks work shall have an opportunity to work. (Cries of 
*You are right.') And then when he has performed an honest day's work for 
his employer, we mean he shall be paid in honest dollars. (Tremendous ap- 
plause.) I assure you gentlemen I appreciate more than I can tell you your 
w'arm assurances of support to the Eepublican cause which for the moment 
I represent. I would be glad to talk with you longer but another delegation 
— for we are having them all tlie time in Canton — is waiting on me elsewhere. 
I thank you and wish you a safe return home, with prosperity to all of you 
in your vocations, and peace and love and contentment in your homes." (Tre- 
mendous applause.) 

RAILROAD riEN OF CHICAGO. 

The railroad men of Chicago were in Canton in great force on Saturday, 
September 19th, to extend their congratulations to Major McKinley. It 
required eleven trains to accommodate the crowd and over 6,000 people came. 
The delegations came in divisions according to the roads represented, each 
road having one or more trains as necessary. Each road used its own cars 
and handsome vestibuled trains were provided. The first section to arrive 
was from the Illinois Central, accompanied by the Illinois Central Band and 
the Blue Island Band. It pulled into the Canton depot at 9:15. Soon after- 
wards came the Chicago and Northwestern party with the Burnside Band. 
The Santa Fe crowd followed. Then there was little delay on account of the 
very heavy load on the Lake Shore and Pennsylvania train. Then came the 
Chicago and Alton and the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy roads. These 
were followed by the Chicago, Lake Erie and Eastern McKinley and Hobart 
Club, and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul men at 11:45. The Great 
Northern Railroad men arrived at 12:15. A delegation of the Hammond, 
Indiana, and Union Stock Yards and Transfer Company's McKinley and 
Hobart Club arrived at 11 :50. The Grand Army Band was engaged by the 

222 



railroad men and was at the depot to play for each train as it came in and when 
the last arrived the Band headed the parade, which was hastily organized. Th& 
usual Reception Committee and escort was at the depot to receive the visitors. 
Eain was falling at intervals during the hours of arrival. Between showers 
the visitors marched to the Tabernacle where headquarters were established.. 
The men then scattered about the town in search of lunch and to await the 
arrival of the later sections when the call upon Major McKinley was to be made. 
Shortly after noon the railroad men began organizing for their parade. There 
was not an enclosure in the city of sufficient proportions to accommodate the 
immense crowd and the men decided to brave the elements and hold their 
demonstration on the McKinley lawn as usual. The parade, headed by the 
Grand Army Band, was a magnificent one. It reached the North Market street 
home about 1:30 o'clock, where Major McKinley spoke in the rain from the 
temporary reviewing stand in the front lawn. The greetings of the railroad 
men were extended by Joseph W. Dodge, of the Illinois Central, and those of 
the Commercial Telegi'aphers of Chicago, who accompanied the railroad men^ 
by Mr. C. W. Burke. Mr. Dodge said: 

"Major McKinley: The honor has been conferred upon me of presenting 
this delegation of 5,000 members of the Railway Men's Sound Money Club of 
the city of Chicago, who, as wage earners, have, irrespective of previous party 
iffiliarions, enlisted under the banner and for the support of those principles 
of honor and justice that have made our Nation loved at home and respected 
abroad. "We have come, sir, not only as representatives of the 15,000 
members of the Railway Men's Sound Money Club of our city, but 
also as individual members of that army of 800,000 employes of the 
railways of this country upon whose earnings 3,500,000 souls are directly 
dependent. The transportation lines of this country are its commercial 
arteries through which the financial blood flows ; the exhaust of the 
locomotive is the heart-throb of trade. By its regulai-ity and force is gauged the 
Nation's financial health For several years past the pulse has been feeble. 
Lack of confidence has caused a thinning of the financial blood, until thousands 
of men of intelligence and ability, skilled in the various departments of railway 
service, are to-day idle, their threadbare clothing, their sunken eyes and care- 
worn features telling all too plainly of the physical and mental pain they have 
endured, of the weary walking from place to place, only to find more unemploy- 
ed, more idle shops, more closed factories, more empty cars, more unchartered 
vessels. Dante does not portray in his "Inferno" more horrible torment than 
is to-day wrecking the lives and torturing the souls of those of our fellow men 
who are unable to provide for either themselves or their loved ones the neces- 
saries of life. What more horrible picture can be painted than that of stai'ving 
in the midst of plenty, of shivering from cold while wool is too cheap to pay for 
shearing? It is for these reasons, sir, that we who have learned that "knowledge 
is power," that it is the key that unlocks to us the treasures of the universe, 
are here to pay our respects and express to you in loving words our approval of, 
and firm belief in, the principles of that party of which you are the standard 
bearer AVe know that by education and perseverance the humblest employe 
in the railway service may rise, step by step, in rank, until he becomes presi- 
dent of the road. We believe that in the education of our people lies the 
strength and stability of our Government. The day has passed when the free 
men of this Nation can be coerced. We have eaten of the fruit of the tree of 
knowledge and know that no government can exist without laws. It is our 
duty to maintain these laws that are operative and to aid in the creation of 

22.^ 



such laws as changing conditions and circumstances require, by placing through 
our ballots, in the various halls of legislation, men who are capable, who 
are honest, who are broad minded, who will enact laws for all the people, and 
not for any class. , In railway parlance, We are this fall self-appointed man 
inspectors, located at a junction point on the International Financial Railway. 
At this junction two competing lines have each offered us a car. We have 
inspected both. One is offered by that road of obsolete six-foot gauge, called 
'free and Unlimited Coinage.' This road has been in the hands of a receiver 
for nearly four years, and but for the good sense of that official, and the aid 
extended by an honorable competing line, it would have ceased business. The 
car it offers is of peculiar design and construction ; in fact, it is a nondescript, 
the like of wliich we have never seen. Its timbers are weak, the platform is loose 
and faulty, while some of the planks are badly decayed. The running gear is 
out of line, the wheels don't gauge, it is without brakes and has the queerest 
combination trucks ever heai*d of ; in fact, there are three under one car. The 
center one, which seems to have been intended to support the main part of the 
load, has lost its bearings, and is moving from place to place, injuring'the car, 
tlie body of which appears to have been constructed of wreckage, as it bears on 
one side the name 'Populistic,' while on the other appears the name of a repu- 
table road, which was undoubtedly stolen, for over it has been painted in crim- 
son letters the name 'Popocratic' We declare this car unsafe and refuse to 
accept it. The car offered by the other road is standard gauge. Every plank 
and timber is from selected stock. Every bolt and nut and every rod and casting 
lijive been tested. It was built on honor and has been accepted by the master 
car builders of the world as a standard. The wheels were cast in the foundry 
of industry, the axles were forged on the works of trade, the bearings are of 
anti-friction metal, their brand is 'Reciprocity' ; while last, but not least, this 
car is equipped with the best known brake named 'Protection.' We accept 
this car." (Great applause.) 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : It would be a hard heart indeed which was not 
moved by this splendid demonstration. I bid each and every one of you a 
sincere welcome to my home. (Cheers.) I count it among the greatest 
honors of my life to have 5,000 representative men from the great railroad 
lines of the country centered in Chicago come to this city to give me their 
assurances that in the year 1898 they stand by protection, reciprocity and 
sound money. (Great applause. ) These delegations coming long distances- 
present a remarkable phase in our political life and evidence the deep solicitude 
they have for the welfare of the country. Such a demonstration as this would not 
be possible if the people of the country were not profoundly sensible of the dan- 
gerous menace which is presented in the National contest this year. (Applause 
and cries of 'We are all interested.') You are here to-day — men of all parties 
and creeds — because you want to defeat the effort which is now being assid- 
uously made to destroy the credit and currency of the country and also 
because, loving law and order, you want to stamp out the sprit of lawlessness 
and repudiation which now threatens it. (Applause and cries of "That's what 
we will do.") Your active interest in this contest for good politics, good 
government, good morals and good money will be helpful in every part of the 
country and inspiring to the friends of good government everywhere. The 
railway is the mightiest factor of modern civilization. If one proof above any 
other be asked for the superiority of the United States over any similar 

224 



nation of equal or approaching territory, I know of no better evidence thatt 
the fact that of the 427,000 miles of railroad in the world, we have nearly 
200,000 miles in this great Republic. (Applause and cries of "Good.") To 
trace their progress during the past twenty years, would be to write the his' 
tory of the country itself, so intimately are they associated. To say that they 
have cost $9,000,000,000, employ 1,000,000 men, with 30,000 locomotives, 27,000 pa.s.- 
senger cars, and over 1,100,000 other cars, that their capital stock is $4,640,000,- 
000, with funded debts of $4,800,000,000 yearly traffic earnings of $1,000,000,000, 
net earnings $318,000,000, and dividends of $84,000,000 annually, conveys but a 
faint idea of how fully they enter into every line of business and effect 
directly or indirectly the great masses of the people. Not only are our lives con- 
stantly in their keeping, but every year they become more and more essential 
to our subsistence, convenience and comfort. (Applause.) The greatest tribute 
which can be paid to the railway men of the country is to point to that high, 
degree of care, attention and skill which they give to the service — performing 
the most delicate and responsible duties in a business in which life and prop- 
erty are constantly involved and where heedlessness or carelessness would 
sacrifice either, and yet the percentage of loss is merely nominal in both. 
We have nearly nine times as great mileage of railways in the United States as 
England, and yet, despite the complaints 'that our roads are loaded down with 
debts which they can never pay, the entire railway capital of this country is 
only two and one-third times that of England. But it is not the remarkable 
enterprise of our railroads, both in equipment and extension that impresses ug 
so much as it is the safety and efficiency in every branch of the service. In 
sunshine or storm, in drouth or flood, in fair weather or foul, at 
whatever peril or cost, our railroad employes can always be relied 
upon as surely as we can depend upon any human agency. (Great cheering.) 
Not only are skill and endurance required in their exacting duties, but the 
greatest watchfulness and fidelity, and often the keenest intelligence to think 
and act instantly under circumstances the most perilous and trying. (Applause 
and cries of 'That's right. Major.') The State of Ohio is a net work of railroads, 
and busy ones, too, when the business of the country is at all what it ought t© 
be. (Applause and cries of 'Right you are.) Our service is as efficient as 
that of the other States, but no exception to the rule, and yet the rail- 
roads of Ohio carried 8,500,000 passengers in 1893 and 1894 without the 
loss of a single life. (Great applause and cries of 'Good, good.') Their 
earnings decreased $22,893,000 last year, but there has been no abate- 
ment in their endeavor to fully provide for the comfort and safety 
of the traveling public, nor has there been the average decrease in employment 
of their trained emjiloyes that have affected them in common with all the other 
employes of the counti'y. (Great applause.) I have said that the railroad men 
are cool and collected, brave and vigilant in the discharge of their duties. 
(Great applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') Surely greater praise 
could not be given them than this: 'Faithful unto death,' has been truly 
written of many a brave engineer, conductor or brakeman who perished rather 
than abandon his train, when that was possible, at the expense of others. 
(Great applause and cries of 'That's right.') So worthy are these devoted ser- 
vants of the public, and so watchful that railway accidents are said by competent 
authority to be neither as frequent nor as fatal as runaways or in the perils of 
other modes of transportation. In the great State of Illinois and city of Chicago^ 
(applause) arenearly 11,000 miles of railway. I have read in theofficial statement 
of your Railroad Commissioners, during the year ending July 30; 2°94, including 

225 



the immense traffic of the World's Fair— the greatest ever known to date— only 
Bixty-flve lives were lost. (Great cheering.) Truly, the 'laborer is worthy of his 
hire,' and faithful to employer and the public ;• and, my fellow citizens, I am 
glad to say that the wages of the railroad men are larger by double in this 
country than in any other country of the world. (Great applause and cries of 
'That's right.') Your spokesman has justly observed that no body of Americans 
has greater interests at stake in the pending political campaign than the 
railroad men, who are everywhere taking the livliest interest in the proper 
settlement of the great principles involved in it. (Applause.) The triumph of 
fi-ee silver would mean to you, as its adoption by Mexico has meant to the 
railroad employes of that country, a decrease of the purchasing power of the 
money in which you are paid of fully one-half, with comparatively no increase 
at all in your wages. (Cries of 'We don't want it and we won't have it.") Not 
only that, but it would mean inevitably decreased employment and general 
distress. A fifty-cent dollar, employes of the railroad companies, would no 
more add to yom- earnings than the railroads would add to their tralflc by dim- 
inishing by half the size of their cars. (Great cheering and cries of 'Good 
enough.') The railway men are deeply interested in the prosperity of the 
country. (Cries of 'You bet we are.') They know from experience that 
when the country is prosperous, railroads are prosperous (cries of 'Yes, we 
do!') and when railroads are prosperous, they have steady work and remunera- 
tive employment. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') They know when 
tlie business of the country is poor the business of railroads is poor, and the 
employes suffer both in time and pay. (Cries of 'That's right, Major.') They 
are interested, too, in good money (cheers) and they are in favor of law and 
order. (Great applause and cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes,' 'Hurrah for McKinley.') 
They want to perpetuate our free institutions for their children forever. 
(Tremendous cheering.) They are zealous, like all good citizens, for the honor 
of the country (cries of 'We are,') and they mean to maintain unsullied the 
proud name of America. (Great cheering.) They do not believe either in 
public or private dishonesty. (Applause and cries of 'Ko,' 'Ko.') They want 
the Government to pay its debts in the best currency known to the commercial 
world ( applause and cries of 'That's right' ) and they want the railroad companies 
to pay them in the bestcurrency in the world (great cheering and cries of 'Hur- 
rah for McKinley') money that will not be questioned and that will pass cur- 
rent everywhere for its face value without discount or depreciation. (Eenewed 
cheering and cries of 'That's what we want.') I can not conceive of a more 
potential force in our politics this year than the men who traverse this coun- 
try from one end of it to the other, and to feel that a large percentage of that 
force is enlisted in the Republican cause and is fighting for the success of Re- 
publican principles is an assurance of victory which will gladden every patriotic 
heart. (Applause.) You are always solicitous for the trains in your charge. 
You guard them with sleepless activity from wrecks and vsreckers, and as 
citizens of this glorious Republic, you are deeply concerned in its progress and 
honor, and will guard with equal care from wreck the credit and currency and 
courts of the United States. (Great applause and cries of 'We will.') The 
signals of danger to public safety and honor are as quickly and faithfully 
heeded by you as the danger signals which your roads have established for the 
safety of life and property committed to your care. (Great cheering.) The 
perils which lie along the path of the Nation's progress, you would help to re- 
move as you would remove those along the tracks of the mighty railroads you 
operate. I welcome the railroad employes of this country as allies in this great 

.226 



oontesfc for the country's honor and the country's flag. (Tremendous cheering,) 
The contest this year, my countrymen, if it results in a victory for the Repub 
lican Party, will not be a mere party victory but a victory deeper and broader 
and more significant than that— for it vrill represent the votes of men of all 
parties who unite with the Republican Party in the patriotic purpose to 
preserve the honor of the country. (Applause and cries of 'You are right.') 
With the many delegations that are visiting me to-day, the one crowding tlie 
other, I am sure you will excuse me from talking at greater lengtli, much as I 
would be glad to do so to this splendid audience of earnest and patriotic men. t 
thank you, one and all, for this visit. It has been an inspiration to m.e and I 
believe that it will be of invaluable service to the cause in which we are all 
engaged. (Applause.) 

And now, Mr. Burke and gentlemen of the Telegraphers' Association ot 
Chicago, I am glad to greet you here with the railroad employes who have 
honored me with their presence. (Applause.) Perhaps none of us appreciate 
the degree of universal acceptance that the telegraph has obtained. I remem- 
ber as a boy of reading how Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse, the first man to put 
the telegraph iato practical use in the United States, sent as his first greeting 
across the wires the significant message, 'What wonders God hath wrought!' 
Little did the people know then what a gift he had made to posterity to the 
remotest ages. (Applause.) When the Democratic National Convention in 
1844 was in session at Baltimore, the news of Mr. Polk's nomination was tele- 
graphed to Washington, sixty miles distant, but it found no credence there. Many 
did not believe in the accuracy of the statement and waited until it was veri- 
fied by the newspapers or the returning delegates. (Laughter and applause.) 
Perhaps the news was surprising where a different result was so confidently ex- 
pected, but it illustrates the credulity of the times and the lack of confidence in 
scientific accuracy. Contrast this lack of faith with the faith of the old 
man of whom it is reported that he had learned to read the clickings of the 
wires and waited patiently at the telegraph office in Chicago for many hours 
for news from Appomattox and when at last the wires were clicking the news 
that Lee had surrendered, he sprang to his feet with the happy exclamation 
which proved to be his last words— 'Now I can die happy !' (Great cheering.) 
Congress gave very scant aid to the great invention and some of the old states- 
men of that time laughed to scorn a proposition to make a^lsmall appropriation 
for connecting Washington with Baltimore by a telegraph line, saying it was 
chimerical and could not be done (laughter) and yet they lived to see such 
lines girdle the globe. (Applause. ) American genius and enterprise, wiser than 
the law givers, were soon extending them everywhere until now, I believe it is 
estimated that the American lines extend for 250,000 miles, with 800,000 miles 
of wire, 26,000 ofiices, and 42,000 employes. Everywhere the service 's 
eflBcientand reliable (great cheering) and I congratulate the telegraphers of 
Chicago, as the representatives of those of the entire country, upon the mar- 
velous skill, rapidity and accuracy with which the millions of messages, almost, 
are daily handled and transmitted. (Applause.) It is gratifying, too, to iind 
them as sensible in politics as in business (great applause) as quick to enhance 
the prosperity of the country, and as unitedly in support of the right, as they 
are uniformly attentive and obliging to the public. (Great applause.) I thank 
you, my fellow citizens, for your call and appreciate most highly indeed the 
assurances of your support. I wish I could shake hands with every .man in 
this audience. (Cries of 'We wish you could too. Major.') I do not know that 
I can do it, but I am glad to meet and greet you and am glad to-know-that you 

227 



are. enlisted in the great cause of honest money and good faith as against 
public repudiation." (Tremendous cheering.) 

HERCER AND BUTLER. 

Just after the railroad men vacated the McKinley lawn, Saturday, Sep- 
tember 19th, the crowds from Mercer and Butler Counties, Pennsylvania, took. 
their places, and were addressed collectively as sons of the Keystone State. 
Introductory addresses were delivered by John E. Harris, puddle boss of the 
Sharon Iron Company's rolling mill; J. M. Evans, President of the McKinley 
and Hobart Club, and H. H. Zeigler, Chairman of the Mercer County Repub- 
lican Executive Committee, on behalf of the Mercer delegation, and by Col. 
J. N. Thomas, on behalf of the Butler people. Nearly every voter in Mercer 
seemed to be included in the crowd which represented that manufacturing 
center, and Hon . B. F. Hammond, State Treasurer, had charge of the delegation. 
It came in three sections. They were assigned to the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows' Temple for headquarters. The first section came in at 11:45 
o'clock. There were eight car loads or about five hundred people. The New 
Lebanon Band furnished the music. The McKinley and Hobart Clubs of 
Stoneboro, Jackson Center, Mercer, and vicinity composed the crowd, with 
Robert Wheeler as Captain. The second section brought the Sharon Pro- 
tection and Sound Money McKinley and Hobart Club, with W.T. Ward as 
President, and Evan T. Swagger, Captain. There were one thousand voters 
in the party and about two hundred in white duck uniforms and caps 
bearing the club name. All wore badges designating their organizations. 
The Sharon Glee Club was along with thirty-three members. The instru- 
mental organizations were the F. H. Buehl Band and the Citizens' Band. 
The banners were numerous and contained apt McKinley quotations 
and mottoes. The third section included the McKinley and Hobart Clubs of 
Greenville, Pardoe, Fredonia, Sharpsville, and Grove City. The Greenville 
Drum Corps and the Fredonia Band were along to supply music. The 
delegation from Butler County .numbered 2,500 people, and Hon. John H,. 
Negley, of Butler, acted as master of ceremonies. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : I am touched by these messages of greeting and' 
congi-atulation from the workingmen, professional men, business men and 
farmers of Mercer and Butler Counties, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is our 
nearest neighbor and the two States have generally been in full accord in 
political belief and purpose. I appreciate the message which comes from the 
workingmen of these two counties, and from my fellow citizens generally. And 
I thank them all from the bottom of my heart for their warm tender of support 
and assurances of fidelity to the Republican cause and ticket. (Cries 
of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') What we want in this country first and 
foremost is work for the American workingman. (Applause.) Everyman in 
this country who wants to work ought to have an opportunity to work, (cries 
of 'That's the idea') and that opportunity is always limited by the extent to 
which we have our work done in Em-ope and European workshops by European 
labor. I am one of those who believe in the doctrine of protecting American 
factories against foreign factories (cries of 'Good,' and tremendous applause) 
and the American laborer against the workingman of the world. (Cries of 
'Hurrah for McKinley.') This is our country, and if we don't have it just as 

228 



we want it, it will be our fault and nobody else's. (Applause.) The way we 
inaugurate policies for our country is through the ballot. (A voice, 'That's the 
stuff, Major.') You have tried partial free trade in the United States, and how 
do you like it ? (Laughter and applause.) Not only have the workin";nien 
themselves suffered, but the farmers have suffered in their home market. 
(Cries of 'That's right.') There is not a farmer in Mercer or Butler County 
present here to-day who has not suffered from the reduced protection given the 
laborers in the factories of these two counties. (Applause.) What we want is 
a chance to work and when we have wages the home market is always improved 
for every farmer who wants to turn an honest dollar. (Cries of 'That's right.') 
We want an honest American dollar, too, and you should vote with the party 
that you believe is more likely to give you the best chance for work and the 
best coin in payment (applause and cries of 'You bet,, we will') and you must 
judge for yourself which party that is. (A voice, 'We already know.') I thank 
you for this call, and wish I could talk longer, but must bid you all good-bye." 
(Continuous applause.) 

CINCINNATI COnnERCIAL TRAVELERS. 

One of the finest and most attractive delegations that has yet visited 
Canton was that of the Cincinnati Commercial Travelers, which came on Satur- 
day afternoon, September 19th. With the drummers came a number of leading 
Cincinnati men, headed by Mayor Caldwell, Hon. Lewis Werker and Judge 
James B. Swing. The men wore hats of uniform style, were a well organized, 
intelligent and well-behaved body of men, winning high encomiums on all sides. 
Their spokesman was Hon. Levi C. Goodale, ex-President of the Cincinnati 
Chamber of Commerce, who said: 

"Major McKinley: The mernbers of the Commercial Travelers' Associa- 
tion and others present who honor themselves by visiting you to-day, have 
selected me from their number to tender you their greeting and good wishes. 
We belong to a class of practical specialists whose value depends upon the 
ability to master trade and to comprehend its opportunities. We keep in touch 
with the people that we may the more easily market our wares. We are paid 
emissaries whose eyes are open to the possibilities of trade and whose fingers 
touch the pulse of commerce, jealously noting every vibration ; we are in sym- 
pathy with every development of trade and sensitive to its detriment. We 
come in contact witli people of almost every locality, of every station in life, of 
every shade of politics, and we are in a position to accurately record public 
sentiment and contribute largely to moulding public opinion. There is no class 
of men more keenly alive to the conditions and wants of the country. No one 
more faithfully represents the tremendous energies which move mercantile 
affairs than the commercial traveler, through whose efforts the lathes and 
spindles of the manufacturer and the wheels of transportation are kept in 
motion. There are none that more intelligently understand the cause of the 
present widespread distress, nor have a keener appreciation of the vital issues 
of the present remarkable Presidential campaign than the merchant, manufac- 
turer and the commercial traveler of this country, whose representatives we 
are. Sagacious, courageous and alert, they form a sentry (so to speak) who 
Are constantly on the picket line of the commercial and industrial forces of the 
Nation, ready to give the first alarm, when danger threatens, and to resolutely 
beat back, as far as in them lies, the enemies of the common welfare. In secur- 
ing trade we call to mind our successes of the past and regretfully contrait 

229 



them with our difficulties of the present , added to this, a new danger confronts 
us. It is the attempt to depreciate the medium of exchange for the commodi- 
ties we sell. In this question^ we have morfe than ordinary interest. Upon the 
commercial vitality of our employers depends our own situations, for no matter 
how efficiently we discharge our duties in placing his wares, unless our em- 
ployer can secure pay for them in money which is good evei*ywhere, a currency 
which has no fluctuation, one which is not sixty cents to-day and fifty cents 
to-morrow, there will come a time when his transactions will become limited 
and the demand for our services will naturally cease. These are conditions not 
theories, and they meet us on every hand ; they retard our present and 
threaten our future. The proposition of 16 to 1 thi*eatens to mean to us, 16 
idle to 1 employed. We are solicitous for a remedy. Recognizing honesty as 
the only substantial basis of trade and an honest dollar as the only correct 
medium of exchange, we as patriotic Americans, ask for protection of American 
interests, the development of American commerce and the maintenance of an_ 
honest currency Our requests are moderate and they entail no exclusive 
privileges. We desire only the general good of the entire people, and shall 
work to secure it only by the ballots of freemen. Believing that the interests 
of the country will be best promoted by the application of the principles which 
you represent, and recognizing the high character of the man who represents 
these principles, we have come to assure you of our devotion to those principles 
and to tender our humble efforts in securing your election." (Applause.) 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Commercial Travelers' Associa- 
tion OF Cincinnati: It gives me peculiar pleasure and satisfaction to meet 
and greet you here at my home. I quite endorse all the splendid things that 
have been said by your spokesman, and I wish that every man in the country 
might be able to read them. He speaks in the right spirit for the right prin- 
ciple, which lies at the foundation of our future prosperity and the honor of 
our country. (Applause.) It gives me great pleasure to welcome you here to 
Canton and to my home, a pleasure enhanced by my acquaintance with many 
of you personally, and the fact that you come from the chief city of our dear 
old State, which we all love so well, and whose good is always one of our first 
thoughts and aims. Cincinnati has been a famous city in the history of ihe 
Mississippi Valley, which to my mind, will become, if it has not already 
become, the seat of the proudest empire of any equal territory on the face of 
the globe. If to the six great States, including Minnesota, which originally 
were comprised in the old Northwest Territory, of which Cincinnati was the 
capital, you add the rapidly growing States beyond the Mississippi and east of 
the Eocky Mountains and those to the south of the Ohio and between it and 
the Gulf, and contrast their present population and importance with that of 
the years 1860 or 1870, even the most cursory examination will be full of 
interest and suggest possibilities for the future of the most amazing character. 
In these nineteen States and two Territories is a greater population to-day, 
and more than half as much wealth as in the whole country in 1860 ; a population 
approximating 38,000,000 in 1890, a gain in inhabitants since 1870 of practically 
one hundred per cent, and property of the assessed valuation of nearly $10,- 
000,000,000. This was the achievement of twenty years, this creation of a new 
nation within the old greater than the parent itself, under the wise laws 
enacted and enforced by the policy of the grand old Republican Party. 

.230 



In these twenty years the protective policy was steadily pursued a^d oui 
present gold standard of values was the basis of all the money issued, 
whether gold, silver or paper. Yet there are those who insist upon declaring 
that our excellent money system and the good dollars we now have in circula- 
tion, every one of which has been worth one hundred cents in gold every 
minute of every hour of every day since January 1, 1879, is impoverishing the 
"West and bankrupting all its people. (Applause.) The Mississippi Valley is 
surely part of the West, and the marvelous growth told by the Census iigures, 
the official authority, proves the falsity and absurdity of their statements. 
The new and promising States of North and South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska 
and Minnesota are certainly young giants of the West, and their growth in 
population from 9-10,000 in 1870 to 4,490,090 in 1890, and their assessed wealth 
of $1,285,000,000, demonstrates to any fair-minded man that however much 
they may have suffered by drouths and poor crops, they are still reasonably 
vigorous (laughter and applause) and in no very great danger of being 
abandoned or bankrupted. (Applause.) The Dakotas had progressed from 14,181 
to 511,527 population in these twenty years and had assessed property of 
$220,000 000. Kansas gained nearly four hundred per cent in popula- 
tion, or from 364,399 to 1,427,096, while her assessed property amounted 
to $291,000,000. Nebraska gained more than eight hundred per cent 
in population in these two decades, springing from 122,993 to 1,058,910 
inhabitants, with an assessed valuation in property in 1890 of $185,000,000. 
Minnesota trebled in population in the same eventful period, increasing 
from439.70i- to 1,301,826 inhabitants, while her assessed valuation of property 
was $589,000,000. So might we enumerate aM the nineteen States of the Miss- 
issiopi Valley with like results. All have made remarkable progress, all have 
gained immensely in both people and wealth, the older States not so rapidly 
as the newer, but all going ahead at a steady and healthy pace, and all the time 
they have been making this progress we have been under a protective tariff 
and upon a gold basis. (Continuous applause and cries of 'Good.') There is 
nothing the matter with any of them, whether of the southern, middle, eastern 
or western divisions, whether of the old slave territory or the virgin prairies, 
exoept that their people have not now the full occupation at the full wages which 
they formerly enjoyed. The great trouble in this country is that we have 
not enough for our people to do. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') We 
had every man employed in this country in 1892 at the best wages that had ever 
been paid to any workingmeh in the world. What is the matter now? (A voice 
— 'Why, the mills are shut down.') It is the same country and the same 
splendid population, the same factories, the same energy, enterprise and skill 
that we had four years ago — what's the matter with the country now, commer- 
cial men of Cincinnati? (Cries of 'Lack of confidence.') It is the lack of confi- 
dence, you all with one voice say, and wliy is this lack of confidence, I ask you, 
commercial men of Cincinnati? What we want in this country in the first in- 
stance is a restoration of confidence, you are right about that — and the only way 
to have confidence in the Government and in the people is for the Government 
to have a revenue policy that will supply enough money to pay its expenses. 
(Applause.) You can not create confidence among the people if you have no 
confidence in the public treasury. Our dollars now are all full and sound and 
all we want is an opportunity to earn them. (Vociferous cheering and cries of 
'That's right.') How can this be secured? (A voice, 'Elect McKi.vley.') Well, 
I do not know what you think about it, but I believe the best way to restore 
prosperity to the people of the United States is to do all our work at home 

231 



at the American scale of wages, and on the basis of American institutions and 
ideals, fully recognizing tlie necessity of a free, enlightened and dignified citi- 
zenship (Applause.) Cincinnati, the Queen City of the West, (gi-eat applause) 
has pointed the way 'O: the right to all the people of the great Mississippi 
Valley in many imp- tu.i. contests. In the olden time her influence was great 
in the first uprising y. the people of the West for National money and a 
protective tariff, in tlie days of William Henry Harrison. In the contests 
before the war, although a border city, her voice was for Lincoln (tremendous 
applause) and her attitude during that struggle was always firm and patriotic. 
[n the fiat money craze of 1S68 her Eepublicans won a signal triumph, and again 
in 1875 and 1876 her example was especially conspicuous, important and 
iecisive. More than once Hamilton County saved the State of.Ohio inclose 
fights (a voice, 'We will do it again') preceding resumption, and I doubt not 
that her voice will be strong, clear and emphatic this year (applause and cries 
.3f 'You bet') for National honor in opposition to repudiation. You have many 
men in Cincinnati of proud business records. No city anywhere in the Union 
has better stood the shock of panics than yours. A city that passed through tlie 
gi-eat panics of 1857 and 1873 with fewer failures than any city of like popula- 
tion in this country and that is now safe and sound and steadily progressing 
■after the panic of 1893 and 1894 may safely be depended upon to set a good 
example in the future to all her neighbors. (Applause and cries of 'You are 
riglit.') No city of the West is better equipped in extensive manufacturing 
plants, better provided with railroads, has a steadier trade on the river, or 
possesses more of the elements of substantial prosperity that Cincinnati. 
(Applause.) Her traveling' men hava extended her commerce in every direction 
and built up a wholesale trade of vast proportions. Let them but promulgate 
the same, safe and conservative but wise and patriotic political principles as 
actuate her business men and they wiU have done much for the right and for 
the country. (Continuous applause.) Cincinnati can again lead and she owes 
it to her glorious past to do so. I thank you, my fellow citizens, for this call. 
I thank you for the honor that your city has done me more than once. I 
recognize, as your spokesman has stated, the great power of the commercial 
travelers. They are so pov^-erful that I do not want them against me or against 
any interest of the country. (Cries 'We are with you. Major.') I thank you all 
and bid you good afternoon." (Vociferous cheering, lasting several minutes.) 

PITTSBURG COnnERCIAL TRAVELERS. 

The delegation of the Pittsburg Commercial Travelers to Canton on Sat- 
urday afternoon, September 19th, can easily be classed high among those of the 
campaign. Every one of the party was a commercial man, and all were 
enthusiastically for protection, reciprocity, sound money and the px-osperity 
sure to follow a Republican victory. They arrived about 3:00 o'clock at tlie 
Pennsylvania station and tliere were fourteen coaches of them. Had the rain 
not interfered there would have been many more. As it was, there were fully 
one thousand in the party. Each man was decorated with badges of red, white 
and blue ribbons lettered with the name of his particular organization. The 
ribbon was fastened by a gold pin, and a button with the emblem of the com- 
mercial travelers upon it. The train was met by the Canton Commercial Travel- 
ers' Club, carrying white umbrellas, in charge of Capt. Trodo. The local com- 
mercial men also secured the Grand Army Band and there were twenty 
carriages at the depot for the ladies, who were thus given a position of honor 
in the procession. Headed by the Canton Troop the visitors paraded the streets 

232 



for a short time before going to the Governor's residence. As the Cincinnntians 
filed off on one side of the lawn the Pittsburg party took llieir places and ]\lr. 
Percy F. Smith, a publisher and business man, spoke first for the delegation, 
saying it was a body of representative men standing as a unit for sound money 
and good government, with colors flying and willing and ready to work for 
the cause till victory crowned their efforts in November. He introduced 
William H. Eeed, President of the Commercial Men's Association, who 
pinned upon Major McKixley's coat lapel a magnificent reproduction in white, 
silver and gold of the badges w^orn by the various visitors and spoke briefly, 
introducing the Club. He said the body before him was deserving of pity. 
For nearly four years the country has been cursed with free trade and there- 
fore the drummers have been in **the enemy's country" seeking trade and 
business has been "a-n-ful dull." In concludinghe said that to them the currency 
question w^as of secondary importance. Protection was their first concern. 
(Applause.) "With our mills and mines and factories started under that sys- 
tem there would be no trouble to sell goods and when goods can be sold by 
drummers to merchants and by merchants to consumers there is no trouble 
about the money with which they are paid. (Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My' Fellow Citizens: I'have already spoken five or six or seven or eight 
times to-day (laughter) to great delegations that have come here from all parts 
of the country. To none do I give warmer welcome than to the commercial 
travelers of the city of Pittsburg. (Applause and cries of 'Hurrah for 
McKixLEY.') There is no class of our population that so quickly discerns busi- 
ness depression as the commercial travelers of the United States. There is no 
class of our fellow citizens who so promptly discover what is wrong with 
the country as these same commercial travelers, and if I wanted to know 
exactly what the condition of trade was in any State of the Union, I would con- 
sult representative traveling men in that section. They are a very handy crowd. 
(Laughter and applause.) I have been at hotels w^here they were stopping 
(laughter) and I have always discovered that they always get the best room, in 
in the best part of the house (laughter and applause) and that they are very 
dangerous enemies in a political contest, or most powerful friends. (Applause.) 
This is a very remarkable campaign. Things that were supposed to be 
settled, and eternally settled, are brought into open controversy. The 
courts of the country that have always been held sacred by every American 
citizen, where the scales of justice have been evenly balanced, that have 
been uninfluenced by wealth and unmoved by passion and that have defended 
the weak against the sti'ong have not escaped attack from some of our 
political opponents. Law and order, which lie at the very foundation of 
our political fabric, and are the very essence of our free institutions, are also 
assailed, so that good men this year, irrespective of former party affiliations, 
are breaking away and uniting upon, one great platform to sustain the National 
honor and the integrity of free government. (Tremendous applause.) I welcome 
the great body of commercial men, from one end of this country to the other. 
I bid them welcome as allies in this great contest to uphold the honor of the Gov- 
ernmentof the United States. (Great cheering.) And what a Government it is to 
contend for — a Government of the widest possibilities, of the most splendid 
opportunities, of equal privileges to all, where the poorest and humblest boy in 
the land can aspire to the highest and noblest office in the gift of the American 

233 



people (loud and eoytinnous applause) and our history demonstrates— (here the 
noise and band playing of an approaching delegation interrupted the Major 
in his speech and after continuous eheering a voice said 'They can't help 
it.') We don't want to help it. We want them all to come, for a Republican 
delegation is never any interruption to a Republican meeting. (Laughter and 
applause.) What I was about to say is that the promise of equal opportunity 
and equal privilege, as shown in our history, is not an idle one. The most 
splendid representatives of Americanism, occupying the highest place in the 
gift of this country, came of humble birth and poor and unpretentious surround- 
ings, and if we did but have Abraham Lincoln (here there was a tremendous 
round of applause) as the representative of our splendid opportunities, that 
would be sufficient. But another delegation awaits me, and I must thank you 
and bid you good afternoon." (Tumultuous and enthusiastic applause and 
hurrahing for McKinley, and waving of hats, handkerchiefs and umbrellas.) 

FOXBURCi RAILROAD MEN. 

The Railway Men's Sound Money Club, of. Foxburg, Pennsylvania, represent- 
ing the Northern Division of the Pittsburg and Western Railroad, came to Can- 
ton on Saturday afternoon, September 19th, and patiently awaited an audience. 
When Major McKinley came out to address them he was greeted with a round 
of cheers and the waving of bright tin dinner pails in the hands of every mem- 
ber of the Club. D. G. Moriarity, President, made an introductory speech, 
saying they had brought only part of the Club because if they had brought all 
of it there would have been no one to run the Pittsburg and Western trains. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I regret very much that I could not have had you 
here earlier in the morning when I had the pleasure of addressing 6,000 railroad 
employes from the city of Chicago, representing all the great roads centering 
in that wonderful commercial city. It wSs a sight that was most inspiring to 
all of us, and most encouraging for the cause in which we are engaged, and for 
w^hose triumph you, with them, will contribute your share. I am glad to meet 
and greet this little body of railroad men, known as the 'Sound Money Club,' of 
Foxburg, Pennsylvania. This year partisanship counts for much less than 
usually and in all the delegations that come to give me assurance of support 
and encouragement, there are large numbers of men who never before voted 
the Republican ticket. They are with us this year because they believe in their 
country and because they believe that patriotism demands that they should 
turn their backs upon their old party and join the one party in this contest 
that represents sound money, National honor, and a protective tariff. (Ap- 
plause.) I am glad to meet and greet you all and bid you godspeed. I am glad to 
see that you come from a town — or a State at least where tin is made. Good 
honest American tin plate, which some people used to say we could not make 
in the United States (cries of 'We fooled them') but which we are making 
withgreat success and thus furnishing some employment to the workingmen of 
the country. I thank you for this call and bid you good bye." (Great applanse.) 

HUNGARIAN=AMERICANS FROM CLEVELAND. 

A large body of Hungarian-Americans from Cleveland visited Canton on 
Saturday afternoon, September 19th, and at the first opportunity filed up North. 
Market Street with the usual escort and took possession of the McKinley lawn, 

234 



These men were all uniformed with white duck caps and each cai-riod a small 
American flag which was vigorously waved by way oi emphasis to their frecniiMit 
cheering. Dr. D. B. Stuer spoke for the visitors. He said the llungai-ian- 
Americans understand the issues of this campaign and realize their duty as 
citizens more thoroughly this year than ever before in the history of the coun- 
try. They are giving their hearty* and enthusiastic support to the cause o 
sound money and a protective tariff. They want a chance for employment for 
their idle hands, not free silver. They want tlie bread of honest labor, not tho 
stone of free trade. (Applause.) Hon. Joseph C. Blocii, Representative from 
Cuyahoga County, made a more extended address on behalf of the visitors, 
going into the issues of the campaign at some length and assuring INIajor 
McKixLEY that "the Republican Party would have the hearty and enthusiastic 
support of the Hungarians now resident in every section of this vast country.'* 
(Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

**My Fellow Citizens: lam indeed grateful for this call, and appreciate 
the warm and earnest assurances which your si^okesmen have given tc me of 
your support in the political campaign which is now engaging us. The pride 
and boast of America is that every inan, native born or naturalized, no matter 
what may be Iiis creed or religion, politics or place of birth, is equal before 
the law and entitled to the enjoyment of equal privileges with every other 
citizen. In a word, that we all stand upon the same platform enjoying the 
largest liberty and widest opportunity in whatever direction our amhitions 
may lead us. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') Tliose of you who were 
born in a foreign country come here because you love our free institutions and 
want to enjoy equal privileges witli those already here. (Cheers.) You come 
because you love liberty and because you believe that there is a wider and 
better field for you here than in the country from whence you came, and I 
want to say to you that coming here to better your condition I know that you 
can be relied upon to stand by the honor of the country and for the preserva- 
tion of our free institutions. (Great cheering.) I want to say just one other 
thing also, for I can not detain you longer, you are carrying the right flag 
(cheers) and with patriotism in your hearts and with that flag in your hands, 
"no harm will ever come to American liberty (great applause) and our free in- 
stitutions will never perish. (Renewed applause.) AVhat you want is the 
universal need of thepeople of this country. (Cries of 'We want work.') Yes, 
you want work ; you want wages ; and you want that work steady and renm- 
nerative. (Applause.) You want your wages good (cheers,) and then when 
you are paid you want your wages paid in dollars worth one hundred cents 
each and good everywliere in the world. (Great cheers and cries of 'Hurrah 
for McKiNLEY.') This is the kind of money we have now and this is the kind 
of money we propose to continue to have in the United States." 

CLEVELAND HARDWARE MEN. 

The ninth and last address delivered by Major McKinlev or Satui-day, 
September 19th, was to the Hardware Men's McKinley and Hobart Club of 
Cleveland. The men marched in gallant military stvle, each carrying over his 
shoulder a flag and in his hand a tin cane, while all wore white caps. Major 
Samuel Gremmill, President, had charge of the Club and CH.Ani,rs / Pvrsoxs 
was the spokesman. After presenting the compliments of tl.e -»*-b, the 

235 



assurances of its hearty support in the campaign, and its expression of ful3 
confidence in the Republican National platform and ticket, Mr. Parsone 
read the following letter from leading hardware merchants of Cleveland, 
explaining how the Club came to be organized: 

Cleveland, Ohio, September 19, 1896. 
Major McKiNLEY : This will be handed to you. by the spokesman of the 
Hardware Men'.s McKinley and Hobart Club of Cleveland. We desire to 
assure you that* the movement to organize this Club by the employes of our 
several houses was entirely voluntary on their part and indeed was welx under 
way before ve (their employers) were aware of it. However, we heartily 
endorse ,it and believe you will perceive that the Club is composed of a fine 
"pody of intelligent and industrious young business men. Tendering you our 
congratulations, we are 

The McIntosh-Huntington Co., A. C. Hord, Treasurer. 

The 'W. Bixgham Co., H. S. Blossom, Secretary. 

The Geo. Worthixgton Co., George Deming, Vice President. 

The Lockwood-Tayloe Co., J. Q. Riddle, FiceTresident. 

The Strong, Carlisle & Turxey Co., E. E. Strong, Tresident. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : I regret that you did not reach here earlier in the 
cay. (Cries of 'You're all right any time.') However, I want to assure you 
that, though you have come late, you are most welcome. (Applause.) It has 
given me pleasure to hear from your spokesman that the hardware men of the 
city of Cleveland, both employers* and employes, have joined together to 
promote the interests and the honor of the country and the prosperity of the 
people. (Applause.) I do not know of any industry anywhere in the United 
States that so fully and completely justifies the gi-eat doctrine of a protective 
tariff as the hardware industry of the United States. (Cries of 'That's right.') 
I remember, and the older men around me will remember, when on the shelves 
of the American hardware merchant there was not to be found a single article 
of hardware of American manufacture and that was about thirty years ago. 
(Cries of 'Yes, yes.') The shelves of the hardware stores of this country were 
crowded with foreign ware made in foreign workshops by foreign workingmen. 
"When we had foreign products we paid very much higher prices than we have 
paid since we have commenced making our own hardware. (Great applause 
and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') Now, for one, I want to keep American 
goods on our shelves (cheers) but we don't want to keep them there too long, 
(laughter and applause) but I want you to put them there and then I want a 
return of the prosperity from which we ran away four years ago that will enable 
your customers to buy those American goods at the same fair prices as former- 
ly. (Tremendous cheering.) A protective tariff has. given to the American 
people hardware cheaper than they ever had it when we were operating under 
a free trade policy. (Cries of 'That's right.') It is so with every industry in 
the United States. In thirty years under a protective tariff, we made this the 
greatest manufacturing nation of the world and we made it the greatest and 
best employer of workingmen of any nation of the world. (Great cheering.) 
Now, my fellow citizens, what we want — (cries of '"We want MoKinley"') — what 
we want I say is work for all. You know when you lost it and how you lost it 
and you know how to get it back again. I will leave this thought with you, 
only thanking you for this call and for your assurances of support." (Great 
applause.) 

236 



HOLriES COUNTY FARMERS. 

The first of the three delegations scheduled to call on Major McKinley at 
Canton on Tuesday, September 22nd, arrived on a special train over the Valley 
at 12 o'clock, noon. It was from that stronghold of Democracy, Holmes County. 
The party numbered about three hundred people and it vs^as as enthusiastic a 
lot of men as have yet paid their respects to him. They were full of sentiment 
for protection and sound money and the mere mention of either evoked tlieir 
heartiest cheers. The delegation was accompanied by the Sugar Creek Cornet 
Band, a very creditable musical organization from Tuscarawas County. At the 
depot the Canton Troop and Citizens' Committee took charge of the visitors 
and with the speaker, committ*.c, and ladies of the party, organized a parade to 
march to the McKinley residence. The marchers were liberally decorated with 
badges and golden rod and several striking banners wei-e carried. One illus- 
trated the tin peddler feature of Major McKinley's last Congressional cam- 
paign and around the frame were hung a number of bright, new tin cups. One 
side was inscribed, "Price in Holmes County in 1890, $1.00 each," on the other 
side, "Price in Holmes County in 1896, one cent each." Another read "Sound 
Money," and. "Protection for Labor." A third gave pictures of a fine and a very 
poor sheep, the first marked "Protection" and the other "Free Trade." Another 
read "Sheep in Holmes County in 1891, 41,853; in 1896, 19,731." When Major 
McKinley appeared upon the porch he was greeted with hearty applause, and 
the waving of hats and banners. Dr. J. G. Bigham, of Millersburg, spokesman 
for the party, said : 

"Major McKinley: The delegation which now greets and cordially cort- 
gratulates you, is one representative of the farmers of Holmes County, which is 
in a special sense, indebted to you. You will pardon mention of the fact, but 
you ai-e also indebted to Holmes County. The case suggests that: 'Behind 
« frowning Providence, He hides a shining face.' This delegation desires to 
publicly confess that the chagrin felt by Holmes County, for obstructing your 
path six years ago, has in the course of events shown that, like sick children, 
gi'own people do not always know just what is best for them. For sorrow then 
we have the 'oil of gladness' now. Every town and hamlet in Holmes County 
enjoyed the honor of your personal efforts in the interest of American labor 
and a self sustaining Government. Such policy having been fairly inaugurated 
was supplanted by the Wilson tariff law. Since that change the farmers of our 
entire country and all the laboring classes have had abundant and bitter 
cause for regret. Idle factories, destitute homes and mortgaged farms— these 
are the shibboleths of this suicidal policy. With anarchistic frenzy the cham- 
pions of the Wilson-Gorman tariff now turn their attacks upon the United 
States judiciary and upon honest money. We know that 'righteousness 
exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.' African slavery, entailed 
upon our country a terrible war. The gloom of its shadow, has not been dis- 
pelled—nor its legacy of sorrow effaced from a million homes— by the lapse of 
one-third of a century. This is not the harpy, that now sits, stifling and throt- 
tling, normal prosperity. (Applause.) The wayfaring man, though of dull 
comprehension, should readily realize that free trade is the special and partic- 
ular bane of these United States. Give us war, famine or pestilence, but we 
must keep our own shops and employ our own labor. Briefly, it is work or 
starve. In a different form, such injunction comes down through the ages and 
it can not be gainsaid. Complete comity exists between the States as well as 
between the surviving veteran soldiers of all the armies. For extent of area, 

237 



for variety of climate, for fertility of soil and mineral wealth, for every 
element in greatest abundance, tending toward and warranting the grandest 
prosperity, ours is indeed, in the words of Joshua and Caleb, an 'excedinggood 
land.' It will soon pass, we are quite sure, from the throttling rule of the 
Amalekites. Coming as we do from a politically infirm region, this delega- 
tion illustrates and emphasizes a condition widely prevalent. It is our duty to 
defend the country against anarchy, socialism and National dishonor and this has 
called iionest, patriotic people, regardless of party name, to stand shoulder to 
shoulder together. Trusting in the saving common sense of the 'plain people* 
of this Nation, as President Lixcoln called them, and in the abiding faith that 
Providence will overrule the misguided judgments of men, we most cordially 
congratulate you upon the manifest signs of certain victory." (Applause.) 

Major McKixLEY was given an ovation as he began to speak and all 
through his address there were hearty cheers and comments. ■V\Tien he had 
concluded, a campaign song was rendered by a glee club accompanying the 
delegation, and then each visitor was personally presented to Major MoKinley, 
and most heartily greeted. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizexs : It gives me great pleasure to welcome to- my home 
the citizens of Holmes County. I recall with special satisfaction that in 1890, 
just six years ago, by act of the Ohio Legislature your county becam apart of 
the Congi-essional District in which I was the candidate on the Republican 
ticket. I remember the campaign that I made in Holmes County with special 
pleasure and gratification. I recall your warm welcome; I recall your words 
of good cheer ; I recall the encouragement which you gave me at every turn ; 
and although Holmes is an overwhelmingly Democratic county , and has always 
been so, it was pleasant to me in studying the returns to observe that by your aid 
and that of some of your Democratic neighbors, the result showed a Republican 
gain. The year 1890 was a year wlien the prophet of calamity was abroad in the 
land. The campaign was one of prediction and prevarication. The tin peddler 
was abroad in Holmes County. His marvelous tales startled the community. 
<Laughter and applause, and beating of tin buckets.) Tin was never so high 
before or since. We had only just enacted the protective law of 1890 and we 
had determined in that law that we would establish in the United States 
factories that would make tin plate for the use of our own people — (applause) — 
and we have done it. (Great cheering.) The people of Holmes County will 
recall to-day that not a single prophecy, not a single prediction made in 1890, 
respecting the price of tin, has been verified. (A voice, 'Not one-,' and loud 
cheering,) This year, as in 1890, we are engaged in a campaign which is fruit- 
ful of promise. Six years ago free trade, as your spokesman has said, was to 
be a cure for all our ills ; tlie panacea for all our troubles. "Well, we have now 
for four years enjoyed partial free trade in the United States — more especially 
in wool (laughter and tremendous cheering) and what effect has it had upon 
the wool growers of Holmes County and other wool growing counties of Ohio 
and the country ? (Applause.) You know better than I can tell you. Now it 
is free silver; free silver is going to cure all our ills. (Laughter and applause.) 
My fellow citizens, it doesn't make any difference how much free silver there is 
in the coinage of the United States — you will not get a dollar of it unless you 
give something for it. (Loud applause and cries of 'That's right.') If we had 
mints in every State in the Union, and in every county of every State, and the 
silver of the world was brought to those mints as is proposed by our political 

238 



opponents, silver would not be any freer for you than it is now. (Tremendous 
cheering and cries of 'You are riglit, Major.') Then, besides, in this country 
we do not propose to have a dishonest dollar. (Continued applause.) We pro- 
pose to have the best of every thing that is going. (Applause.) We have the 
best country and the best men and we propose to continue to have the best 
money. (A voice, 'That's what we're going to do.') There ir another thing, 
my fellow citizens, this year the people mean to put at rest the question of their 
honesty, which was never doubted either at home or abroad until put into con- 
troversy by the allied parties in this political contest. I say allied parties — the 
one a, new party assuming an old name ; the other a little older and falsely 
claiming to be the people's party. It is to the credit of the country that the 
time-honored leaders of one of the parties have indignantly repudiated those 
who have assumed to question the public honor in the nanie of Democracy. 
(Cries of 'Good' and applause ) The people in November will rep idiate the 
other party of the combination for assuming the role of dish, nor in thtir sr^cred 
name. (Great applause.) The people have no pationce vrith those who would 
violate the plighted faith of the Nation and stamp its obligations with dishonor. 
(Tremendous applause.) They will not tolerate repudiation of public law or 
private dealings. They will not countenance the clipping of the coins of the 
country and will never consent to cheapening cun*ency in any form that may 
be proposed. (Continuous cheering.) The contest should be settled this year 
that no pai'ty hereafter can alarm the business world and shake public confi- 
dence by a proposition to'scale our debts, either public or private. (Applause, 
and cries'of 'You are right.') We can not afford to have the question raised 
every four years whether the Nation will pay or repudiate its debts in whole or 
in part. (Tremendous applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') This is the year, 
my fellow citizens of Holmes County, to settle that question forever. (Ap- 
plause.) It can be so determined ^this year that it will never present itself 
again in your lifetime or mine. A sweeping and impressive majority against 
the combined opposition will do it — (cries of 'Good,' and applause) — and noth- 
ing else will. (A voice, 'W^e will do it all right.') Not a bare ;najority, but a 
mighty one, placing the party of National honor in control of every branch of 
the Government will do it. Anything short of that will leave the question open 
to further dispute. Let us settle once for all that this Gcfvernment is one of 
honor and of law, and that neither the seeds of repudiation nor lawlessness can 
find root in our soil or live beneath our flag. (Vociferous cheering.) In this 
contest all the banner we want is the American flag. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') 
It represents all our aims, all our policies, all our purposes. It is thj banner of 
every patriot and it is, thank God, to-day the flag of every section of our com- 
mon country. (Applause.) No flag ever triumphed over it. (Great and con- 
tinuous cheers.) It was never degraded or deserted and will not be now when 
more patriotic men are guarding it than ever before in our history. (Continued 
applause.) I thank you, my fellow citizens, for this friendly call and it will give 
me great pleasure to meet and greet all of my old sturdy Eepublican and all 
my old and new Democratic friends in Holmes County." (Three cheers for 

McKlXLEY 

CHAUTAUQUA AND CATTARAUGUS COUNTIES. 

At 2 :00 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, September 22nd, a special train of 
twelve coaches on the Cleveland, Canton and Southern Railroad, brought a 
large delegation to Canton from Jamestown, New York, representing Chautau- 
qua and Cattaraugus Counties. The delegation brought two bands and carried 

239 



many striking campaign mottoes, that elicitinpf most applause being en,' 
pledging New York State to McKinley and Hobart by 600,000 majority. At 
the McKinley home a congratulatory address was made by Hon. A. C. Wade, 
of Jamestown, who said: 

"Major MoKinxey: All the Republicans, and one-half of the Democrats of 
old Chautauqua, send you cordial greeting and good cheer. (Applause.) We 
come from the city of Jamestown, the westernmost city of the State of New 
York, to testify to you the devotion of its people to the principles you represent 
and to congratulate you upon the glittering prospect of triumphant victory in 
November. (Applause.) Four years ago we boasted of our industries; we 
were proud that our city of 25,000 inhabitants, with two hundred different 
manufactories, under the beneficent influences of a tariff law bearing your 
honored name, had an annual output of .$10,000,000; we rejoiced that there were 
more laboring men in that city owning and living in their own homes, than in any 
other city of its size on earth ; we delighted in the fact that there was no idle 
man in th. t e mmunity, except from choice ; we took gi-eat pride in our bank- 
ing institutions that were adequate for the needs of our city, each and every 
one of which wore in accord and sympathy with our industrial system ; we 
prospered undtr a policy that i^ised the scale of wages higher than ever before 
known. (Applause.) Wonderful changes have been wrought since then. It is 
our lamentation to-day that our annual output has been diminished one-half; 
the wages of our laboring people have been greatly reduced, and for three long 
years many good men have been walking the streets seeking an opportunity .to 
earn a livelihood. Of these sad changes, our wages, ou.. unemployed labor and 
languishing industries speak more forcibly than I. (Cries of 'That's right.') 
We are now confronted with a proposition that our cheapened wages shall be 
still further reduced by paying therefor in dishonest dollars and that our 
business interests shall be again readjusted to meet the terrible conditions 
incident to the circulation of a depreciated currency. We are asked to forget 
the history and experienoo of ages and to adopt theories and to try experiments 
more dangerous than war and more destructive to our industrial system than any 
scheme heretofore presented. We are asked to surrender our National honor and 
to forget our individual integrity in a wild and senseless scramble to pay our obli- 
gations at fifty cents on the dollar. At such a proposition the people of the 
East revolt, as I believe, will also the people of the North, the South, and the 
West. Our city has recently ' en visited by your political opponent and while 
there, in an unguarded moment, forgetting the vagaries of his new financial fad, 
he advised the people to think ^ur themselves and to vote in accordance with 
their own interests. The people ^f Maine and Vermont seem to have been fol- 
1. wing that or similar advice and we are not likely to forget it in November. 
(Applause.) There have been times when the arguments of our political 
adversaries have been somewhat bewildering. They have spent the first half 
hour of every evening telling their listeners that trusts and combinations have 
so enhanced the prices of every conimodity that the people have been subjected 
to constant rcbbery, and the next half hour in explaining how the 'crime of 1873* 
by which they say silver was demonetized, has so far reduced prices as to leave 
nothing but ba-nkruptcy for the producer. They tell us in one breath that the 
'crime of '73 produced the panic of '73, and in the next breath they assert with 
equal assurance that this 'crime' was not discovered till '96. They tell us that 
by legislation alone we can raise the market price of silver to $1.29 per ounce 
throughout the world and that should the magic wand of silver legislation be 
stretched out over the yellow metal it would produce tlie opposite effects 

240 



These and similar inconsistencies from our Popocratic friends have so fat 
cleared the political atmosphere in our State as to leave but one question upon 
which political 'discussion can to-day be provoked, and that is, how many hun- 
dred thousand majority you shall receive in that imperial commonwealth. (Ap- 
plause.) We have not forgotten your public services. We are not unmindful 
of your earnest devotion to the principles so essential to our industrial interests 
and so indispensable to the development of our National resources and under 
which our Nation has grown so great. These principles have neither been 
overlooked, laid aside, nor forgotten in constructing the platform upon which 
you were nominated, but, being guided by the experiences of the past, to them 
we steadily adhere, These principles so clearly enunciated in our platform, and 
your name at the head of our ticket, have made every workshop in our State a 
Republican headquarters. In fact, the people of New York have been voting 
for McKiNLBY for the last three years." (Applause.) 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Wade and My Fellow Citizens : It is especially gratifying to me to 
welcome to my city and home citizens of the great Empire State of New York. 
It is a proud thing to be a citizen of the first and gi-eatest State in the 
American Union, but it is prouder still to be a citizen of the mighty American 
Nation. Your call at any time would have been most welcome, but your 
coming so far on such an inclement day to testify your devotion to Republican- 
ism is a most impressive and significant act, I thank you for it on behalf of 
the Republican cause, and congratulate you and the great people and State 
that you represent upon the splendid prospects for local and National 
success. (Applause.) It is difficult to realize— and I sometimes think 
that the country does not realize — that as immense as the agricultural 
resources of the West are, yet New York is still the first State both in the 
value of her farms and farm products. Your counties are among the most 
northwestern in that splendid group of magnificent agricultural counties 
stretching across your State, having in 1890 an assessed valuation of $1,066,- 
176,141, and yielding annually, from your 23,000,000 acres, $178,000,000 worth of 
products. Your farmers, therefore, are quite as much interested in the 
proper settlement of the free silver, tariff, and reciprocity issues in this 
campaign, which in importance dominate all others, as the farmers of any 
other section of the country ; and so, whatever may be said on these subjects, 
the fact ought to be constantly borne in mind that the farmers of New York 
are quite as much concerned in .point of .actual property at stake as those of 
any other State or section of the Union. The attempt to inflame the passions 
of the West and South against the East is, therefore, but a mischievous and 
unpatriotic effort to arouse among farmers prejudice and hatred against 
men of their own calling, affected by the same causes and feeling the same 
business depression as those which disturb and harrass the whole country. I 
have no sympathy, my fellow citizens, with a cause based upon mere hate and 
passion. It is beneath the aim and purposes of patriotic freemen, and I am 
glad to note that it receives no encouragement from the sturdy citizens of 
New York. (Applause. ) How strikingly the names of the illustrious Hamil- 
ton and the State of New York are inseparably connected! (Applause.) We 
can not think of the great events of our history without at once associating 
them together, and we can not recall any example of like nature so con- 
spicuous unless it be the inseparable association of Washington and Jeffer- 
son with Virginia, and Lincoln with Illinois. Fortunately these statesmen 

241 



Are all our own countrymen, and we can not too highly revere them, for, how- 
ever much they may have differed in administrative policies, they were 
always together for the honor of the conntry. (Applause.) No man 
of his time left a more lasting impression on public legislation than the 
eminent leader of New York, Alexander Hamilton, who, more than any one 
else, secured her ratification of the United States Constitution, and to whom 
we are more largely indebted than to any other statesman for our protective 
System, which he always steadily supported. And for our excellent monetary 
system also, for, beginning with the first coinage act, April 2, 1792, every law 
enacted down to and including the act of 1875 providing for the resumption of 
specie payments, was based upon the principles laid down by Alexander 
Hamilton and supported almost in their entirety by Thomas Jefferson. 
{Applause.) "We have heard a great deal in this campaign about the doctrines 
of the fathers. Hamilton favored both gold and silver as money, though he 
preferred gold alone himself, and the Government of the United States entered 
'apon the use of both. Hamilton announced the great fundamental principle 
when he said: 'There can hardly be a better rule for any country for a legal 
than the market ratio.' In other words, every coin should contain enough metal 
so that when melted it would be worth just as much as when it was stamped as 
money,thebullionormarket value always to be the same as its legal or money 
Talue. This was the doctrine of both Hamilton and Jefferson. This has been 
the undeviating policy of the Government under every Administration and has 
teen the settled policy of all the great parties of the country from the beginning of 
the Government. By the act of July, 1890, commonly known as the Sherman law, 
we insisted upon putting into that law the doctrine of Hamilton that the parity 
of the two metals must always be sacredly maintained. (Applause.) The 
Republicans wrote into that law, for both branches of Congress and the Presi- 
dency were in the hands of the Republican Party, a solemn pledge, which is as 
binding an agreement between the Government and people as was ever made. 
Here is Mie language: 'It is the established policy of the United States to 
maintain the two metals (gold and silver) at a parity with each other upon the 
present legal ratio or at such ratio as may be established by law.' This was 
the act of the Fifty-First Congress, passed by the Republican Party and signed 
by Mr. Harrison, a Republican President, for the purpose of preventing the 
free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, but nevertheless giving to silver the 
largest possible use as money and for that purpose providing for the utilization 
of substantially the full product of the Ainerican mines. (Applause.) This is 
not the only declaration in recent years in support of the Hamiltonian idea of 
a parity. The Fifty-Third Congress, elected in 1892, and Democratic] in both 
branches, with President Cleveland as Chief Executive, elected by the 
Democratic Party, also recognized the necessity of a parity. President Cleve- 
land was so convinced that the coinage of silver was becoming a great peril to 
the country that he called Congress together in extraordinary session, August 
7, 1893, and Congress at his earnest solicitation proceede4 to repeal the pur- 
ehasing clause of the so-called Sherman law, and in doing this wrote into our 
public statutes this express contract: 'And it is hereby declared to be the 
policy of the United States to continue the use of both gold and silver as the 
standard money and to coin both gold and silver into money of equal intrinsic 
and unchangeable value, this equality to be secured through international 
agreement, or by such safeguards of legislation as will insure the maintenance 
of the parity in value of the coins of the two metals and the equal power of 
every dollar at all times in the market and in the payment of debts.' (Ap- 

2t2 



plause.) This was the act of the Fifty-Third Congress under President Cleve- 
land, an act by a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President, ai)i)roved 
by a Democratic Administration and endorsed everywhere by the Democratic 
press and as I believe by the masses of the Democratic Party. (Applause and 
cries of 'Right.') It is true that we as Republicans can take satisfaction in 
the'fact that it would not have passed the Senate except for the earnest support 
of Republicans and none more prominently than Senator Sherman himself. 
(Applause.) But the Democratic Party was solely responsible for our legisla- 
tion then and its action bound tlie members of tliat party as strongly to the 
support of "honest money as the Fifty-First Congress had committed the Re- 
publicans of the country to the support of the same doctrine. (Applause.) 
With what bad faith, therefore, with what disregard for the right, for justice 
and honor, can any citizen now demand that the Government shall enter upon 
any settlement of our debts, or any scheme of coinage, the confessed result of 
which would be to destroy the parity between our dollars, drive gold from cir- 
culation, and reduce the value of silver and paper dollars still circulating nearly 
one-half? Hamilton and Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln, Grant and 
Cleveland never taught doctrines so perilous as that! (Applause and cries 
of 'Never for an instant.') The people of the United States will never adopt 
so discreditable and dangerous a course, nor will they fail to brand it with 
their condemnation whenever the opportunity is given them through the ballot. 
The idle talk about the 'dollars of the fathers' and 'the principles and 
men of 1776,' will do no harm; but it "will never convince the honest 
citizen that Hamilton or Jefferson, or any others of our revered fathers or 
patriots, ever viewed with toleration any scheme of dishonest finance or con- 
templated for an instant the idea that the United States would cheat its peo- 
ple in their money, or repudiate any obligations it ever made, either by express 
terms or implication. (Applause.) My fellow citizens, it must never be 
written that this Nation either encourages or practices dishonesty. Good 
money we will continue to have. -What we want now is a chance to earn more 
of that good money. (Applause.) We never had better currency in the world 
than we have to-day, and we never had so much work in our history as we had 
in 1892. What we want is to get back those good times and the people are only 
waiting for an opportunity in 1896 to vote back the principles and policies they 
gave up four years ago. We want no free trade in the United States. AVe want 
the American workshop protected and defended against the foreign workshop 
for the benefit of American workingmen. (Applause and cries of 'You are right.' ) 
Suppose the foreign manufacturer could pay our custom duties with a fifty-cent 
dollar would not that reduce the protection you now have almost one-half? 
(Applause and cries of 'You're right it would.') My fellow citizens, do not be 
deluded. No matter how much money we have or may have in this country, 
there is but one way to get it, and that is to give something for it. What we 
want just now is somebody who wants what we have to give him. Labor can 
not wait. The capital of the workingman is in his strong right arm. If he does 
not use it to-day just that much of his capital is gone and gone forever. The 
capitalist can wait on his dividends, but the workingman can not wait on his 
dinner. (Applause.) And there is nothing so well calculated to injure labor in 
the United States as a depreciated currency. (Applause.) I want to read you 
what Webster said, March 15, 1837, in your great State: 'He who tampers with 
the currency robs labor of its bread. (Applause) He panders, indeed, to greedy 
capital, which is keen-sighted, and may shift for itself, but he beggars labor 
\Yhich is honest, unsuspecting, and too busy with the present to calculate for the 

243 



future. The prosperity of the working classes lives, moves, and has its being in 
established credit and a steady medium of payment. (Applause.) All sudden 
changes destroy it. Honest industry never comes in for any part of the spoils 
in that scramble which takes place when the currency of a country is disordered. 
Did wild schemes and projects ever benefit the industrious ? (Cheering and 
cries of 'No,' 'No.') Did violent fluctuations ever do good to him who depends 
on his daily labor for his daily bread? Certainly, never. All these things may 
gratify greediness for sudden gain or the rashness of daring speculation, but 
they can bring nothing but injury and distress to the homes of patient industry 
and honest labor.' (Applause.) And now, my fellow citizens, grateful indeed 
am I for the honor of this call. I recognized you as citizens of Chautauqua and 
Cattaraugus counties when I first appeared on this porch. I recognized the- 
Chautauqua salute and the Cattaraugus cheer. (Laughter and applause.) I 
remember to have been in your State in 1894 and in both your splendid counties^ 
and that the subjects that were agitating you then are agitating you 
now, and I remember that when you cast your votes in November yoa gave 
to that splendid citizen of New York, Levi P. Morton, more than 150,000 major- 
ity. "What will your answer be this faD? (Cries of 'We will make it 600,000 for 
you.') Well, my fellow citizens, if you will do that Ohio will be perfectly sat- 
isfied. (Cheers.) It will give me pleasure to meet and greet each one of 
you personally." (Great and long continued applause.) 

ELKHART AND NORTHERN INDIANA. 

The delegation from Elkhart, Indiana, which called on Major McKnaEY 

Tuesday afternoon, September 22nd, was a most enthusiastic body. The special 

train arrived over the Cleve]pnd, Canton and Southern Eailroad about 4 o'clock. 

The cars were covered with banners and streamers announcing some of the 

organizations present. Among the inscriptions were : "Open the Mills and Not 

the Mints;" "Elkhart, Indiana, Delegatioji ;" "Goshen, Indiana, McKinley 

Club;" "Protection, Prosperity and Patriotism." A mighty cheer went up 

from a thousand throats as the train pulled into the station, and cheering was- 

the chief occupation of the visitors until after the reception at the McKinley 

home. The Elkhart City Band came with the delegation and headed the 

parade, which was quickly organized by the Canton Troop and the Citizen's 

Reception Committee. Each of the visitors wore an old gold badge inscribed 

"Elkhart, Indiana, Delegation. Sound Money and Protection." The delegation 

on reaching the McKinley home, quickly crowded about the porch and the glee 

club sang, 'Do We Want Him ? Well, I Should Say So"— a topical song that 

made a great hit. Hon. James S. Dodge, of Elkhart, was the spokesman of the 

party and introduced the visitors as farmers, merchants, wage earners of all 

kinds, mechanics, manufacturers and professional men. They brought tidings 

he said, that the good old State of Indiana in 1896 would be found loyal to the 

principles of the Republican Party, and standing firmly for the cause of honest 

money and good government. They had discovered out in Indiana, that a 

• Government of the magnitude of the United States could not be conducted 

successfully with a system of revenue falling far behind its current expenses. 

They had also discovered during the past three years that when we patronize 

the manufacturers and producers of foreign lands for what we consume we will 

produce distress at home. He assured Major McKinley of the high esteem in 

wliich he is held in Indiana, and promised that the confidence in him and the 

policies for which he stands would be attested by a Republican plurality of 

50,000. In closing jMr. Dodge presented the Major with a terra ootta bust of 

244 



himself made by one of the new industries of Elkhart. 'There was a storm of 
applause when Major McKinley arose to respond and it broke out afresh when 
the Major referred to President Harrison. Every sentiment expressed in his 
address was most heartily cheered. The enthusiasm to get to Major McKinley 
to shake his hand was of the wildest order. People crowded from all directions 
and it was impossible to keep any line. In the rush the stenographer's table 
was demolished and the porch chairs overturned and pushed from one side of 
the veranda to the other in a manner calculated to end in their speedy demoli- 
tion. The visitors remained in Canton until nine o'clock at night, and spent 
the time in looking about the city. It was said that the delegation contained 
a number of former Democrats who are now enlisted in the cause of honest 
money. Among these was Charles A. Wehmeyer, of Goshen, Indiana, a relative 
of John Lehman, of Canton. Mr, Wehmeyer was a delegate to the Chicago 
Convention w^hich nominated Mr. Bryan. When he returned from that con- 
vention he hung Major MoKinley's portrait in his window and has since been 
one of his heartiest supporters. 

Hajor flcKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : It gives me sincere pleasure to welcome to my 
home the citizens of Indiana. I have had a good many delegations visit me 
in the Inst three months, but I assure you none of them has given me more 
pleasure or has received heartier welcome than I give you here this afternoon. 
You have a great State. You have much to be proud of; you have much to 
glory over in your material resources and manufacturing enterprises, but you 
have more to glory over in the splendid men which your State has produced. I 
can not forget as I stand in the presence of an Indiana audience, that it was 
your State that produced that splendid soldier and statesman and illustrious 
President, Benjamin Harrison (great applause) whose Administration of four 
years of the Government of the United States has few parallels in the history 
of the country. Honest, strong, wise, patriotic, American ; an Administration 
that stood by the great doctrines of the Eepublican Party, and that never 
turned its back upon the glorious Stars and Stripes, and the men who sustained 
them during the four years of our Civil War. We would all be glad to be back 
in those four years under the Administration of President Harrison, years of the 
highest and greatest prosperity to the American people ; years that registered 
the highest foreign trade this Nation ever had, and registered, too, the largest 
domestic trade we ever enjoyed. They were tho four years when we had the 
largest and the most splendid prosperity in all our history ; when every man 
in this country who wanted to work could get work ; when every shop was 
open; when every factory was running; when every busy, thriving city of this 
land was active in its enterprises and industries. It has not been so during the 
last four years. We have had a very different experience during this period ; we 
know more now than we knew then, and we know better how to vote now than 
we knew in 1892. (Applause. ) You remember in that year the campaign was 
filled with glittering promises ; every thing good was to come to this country, 
if w xvould onl^ turn the Reoublican Party out of power, and out the Demo- 
cratic J*arty in. Free trade was to relieve us of every ill that had ever settled 
upon this country; protection was robbery, was unconstitutional, was a fraud, 
and ought to be repealed; and if that party was only given power in this 
country they would repeal the law, and then we would enter upon an era of 
prosperity the like of which we had never known before. And the people put 

245 



that party in power and the splendid prosperity we have had ever since yoir 
know all about. (Cheering and cries 'And we want no more of it.') We are 
not asking too much, my fellow citizens, when we ask for an American policy 
that shall protect the American people in their occupations and their employ- 
ment, are we? (Applause and cries of 'No,' 'No.') We are not asking very much 
when we ask the Congress of the United States to protect the American work- 
shop, and to give the American shop preference to the foreign workshop. 
This is all we have ever asked under a protective tariff ; more, we have never 
contended for, and less, we will not have. (Applause.) The American people 
have made up their minds to that. Some people say that the tariff question is 
settled. It is settled, I grant you, in the minds of the American people and it i» 
settled on the side of a genuine American protective policy. (Applause.) But 
settling a question in the minds of American people does not settle it in public 
law until the people have voted that way and given us a Republican Congress. 
(Applause and cries of 'We'll give you a chance to settle it.') The people of 
the United States never wanted a chance to vote so badly in their lives as now 
and under our form of government (cheers) it will be only six weeks to-day 
until from one end of the country to the other we will have that chance — and 
how will you improve it, my fellow citizens ? (Cheers and cries of 'By electing 
McKixLEY.') I say it is not very much to ask that we restore the American 
system, for this is our country. It is nobody else's but ours, and if we do not 
make it what we want it, it is our fault. I think the true policy of the people of 
this country is to protect the men who owe allegiance to that flag first (pointing 
to the American flag) and who will fight, aye, die if need be, preserve 
it. (Cries of 'Right,' 'Right,' and gi-eat applause.) Do not forget, my 
fellow citizens, that it requires a Senate and House of Repres-^ntativea 
for that. Having settled the question of the tariff there is one other question 
which is already settled, but that some people propose to unsettle, and that is 
the money question, and we are opposed to any such unsettling as they tavor, 
(Applause and cries of 'No free silver for us.') They propose to debase the cur- 
rency of the country by free silver as they have degraded the labor of the coun- 
try by free trade. We want in this country dollars worth one hundred cents 
each ; dollars as good as are found in any country of the world ; dollars that are 
not only good in New York but also in London and Liverpool ; that are not caly 
good in Indiana but are good in Ohio and wherever trade goes, in every ■ 
and market place in the world. This is the kind of money we have now ; that's 
the kind the Republican Party gave this country, for every dollar we have to-day 
of every kind has been given to you for the most part by Republican legislation, 
and every dollar of it is as good as gold everywhere in the world ; and we pro- 
pose keep it right there. (Applause.) Then there is another thing we pro- 
pose to d . We propose to settle for all time that this is a Government of law 
and a Gov-inment by law and a Government of honor and public faith under 
every a- ' any consideration. (Cheers and cries of 'Right you are.') There is an- 
other thi:— , my countrymen from Indiana, that we propose to do. We propose 
to stand by the honest judiciary of the United States, that has more than once 
been our sheet anchor in time of trouble; the tribunals that protect the 
weak against the sti-ong, that are uninfluenced by avarice and unmoved by 
prejudice. (Cheers.) We propose, in a word, to stand by our free institutions, 
where every young man has a chance in the race of life and to spurn the sugges- 
ts n that there are classes in the United States. Every honest man under our 
flag is as good as any other honest man and we propose to keep him so. (Ap- 
plause.) Every man has an equal opportunity under our laws to rise in this 

246 



country with any other, and I bid the young men who stand around me neveTto 
permit any barriers to be raised between one class of citizens and another. 
Keep the gateway wide open ; keep the door of opportunity swung wide open, 
30 that your boy and his boy may have every opportunity that belongs to our 
free government and its precious institutions. (Cheers and cries of 'We will.') 
And now, my fellow citizens, I am done except to tliank you for the courtesy of 
this call I have been pleased to receive the gracious message of your spokesr- 
man and his promise of 50,000 Republican majority in Indiana. (Cheers.) I 
want you to remember that your statement is recorded, and, as I understand it, 
every one of you have endorsed that statement. Therefore, you will all be bound 
to make it good. (Great applause and cries of 'That's all right we will give it 
to you.') And if you will make it good, then the patriotic people from one end 
of this country to the other will rejoice. I thank you, my fellow citizens, ar.d 
will be glad to shake each one of you by the hand." (Great applause and 
continuous cheering.) 

WOOD COUNTY REPUBLICANS. 

The Wood County delegation that called on Major MoKixley, Wednesday 
afternoon, September 23rd, began to arrive over the Cleveland Terminal and Val- 
ley Railroad at 1:45 o'clock. It consisted of the Ladies' McKinley Club, of Bowl- 
ing Green. The members wore traveling dresses and natty Tam O'Shanter caps, 
with gold bands. With them were the McKinley First Voters of the same city, 
in full uniform of white, and the Bowling Green McKinley and Hobart Club. 
Two bands accompanied the clubs and a large number of other citizens, tha 
whole party numbering about one thousand earnest and enthusiastic Repub- 
licans. They were met at the station by the Canton Troop, and Reception 
Committee in carriages, and escorted to the McKinley residence. Here tha 
crowd was massed on the lawn, the ladies in front, and it greeted Major 
McKinley with "three cheers for our next President." R. S. Parkkr, of 
Bowling Green, made an address introducing each of the clubs in the p»rtj 
and dwelling at some length on the development of Wood County under a 
protective tariff policy and the present monetary system. Major McKinlkt 
was given an ovation as he began to speak. When he had concluded each of 
the party was personally presented, and the ladies were received by Mr*. 
McKinley in the parlor. 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Parker, Ladies and Gentlemen : I am very glad to meet at my 
home this large delegation from Wood County, I can not imagine a more 
representative body of citizens than that which I see before me — men and 
women, old and young, workingmen and farmers, men of every pi-ofession and 
calling in your county ; and it indicates to me that no matter what may be 
asserted in other quarters of the country, there is no such thing known as 
'classes' in WoodCounty. (Great applause and cries of 'That's right.') I wish 
especially to make suitable acknowledgments to the good women who have 
honored me with their presence to-day. (Cheers.) They are a mighty factor 
in our progress and civilization and have been potential in every crisis oi 
American history. (Renewed cheering.) I am glad to know that they are 
interested in the party of good morals, good politics, good government, and 
public and private honesty. (Great applause.) The presence of this body of 
young men who are to vote for the first time next November is an inspiring 

247 



Bight. That you are so soon to enjoy the priceless privilege of citizenship 
must be to all of you a glorious thought. You are soon to assume your share 
in government and all its duties and responsibilities. J wonder as I look into 
your faces whether you fully appreciate the privilege and honor which you are 
about to have. I fear sometimes that few of us estimate suffrage at its true 
worth. It clothes us with sovereignty. It is a guaranty to our liberties and 
Institutions and is our surest safety. It is the constitutional mode of express- 
ing the popular will. Through it policies are determined, public laws 
enacted and our whole governmental machinery conducted. It is, indeed, a 
priceless inheritance and should be valued as such by every citizen. With 
the privilege comes grave responsibilities in its use. It should express the 
intelligence, judgment and conscience of the voter. It should never be em- 
ployed for any base use, but always exercised with courage, wisdom and patri- 
otism. It should never, no, never, be thrown against the country, and never 
approve or favor public dishonor. (Great applause.) I recall, young men, my 
first vote. With what a thrill of pride I exercised for the first time the great 
prerogative of citizenship. I have never known greater pride since. I felt 
that I had some part in the Government. The period and circumstances when 
I cast my first vote may have made a deeper impression upon me than it 
otherwise would, but I recall it now after thirty-two years with sensations of 
joy and satisfaction. (Applause.) In the crisis of war and on the very field of 
conflict, my first vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln. (Great cheering.) This 
is to me a priceless memory. What glorious privilege to have been permitted 
to vote for a candidate for President whose services to his country in the great- 
est peril of its life rank with the services of Washington, the Father ot his 
Country! (Applause.) It is a precious memory to me that I could vote for 
the Martyr to Liberty, the Emancipator of a Race, and the Savior of free 
Government among men! (Great cheering.) You, gentlemen, did not have 
that privilege ; but it having been denied you, there will be some satisfaction 
to you to vote with the party of Lincoln, which rallied the young men of the 
country around the banner of Liberty, Union and National honor, between 
IgeO and 1865 (applause) and now summons you to battle under the same glo- 
rious banner. (Renewed applause.) I can not omit here a quotation from Mr. 
Lincoln, written to the young men of Illinois on June 22, 1848. Mr. Lincoln 
said: Now as to the young men. You young men get together; form a 
n:<ough and Ready Club,' and have regular meetings and speeches. Take in 
everybody y u can get. As you go along, gather up all the shrewd, wild boys 
about town, whether just of ^ge or a little under age. Let every one play the 
part he can play best. Some speak; some sing; and all 'holler.' (Great 
laughter and applause.) Your meetings will be of evenings. The Ider men 
and women will go to hear and see you. It will not only contribute to 
the election of 'Old Zach,' but it will be an interesting pastime and improving 
to the intellectual faculties of all engaged. Do not fail to do this.' (Great 
applause.) I commend these homely words of Mr. Lincoln to the young men 
of the country. Such organizations as he advised will have a powerful influ- 
ence in the political contest which is now upon us. They will not only inspire 
the young men, but will inspire the hearts of the Old Guard of the Republi- 
can Party. (Applause.) It is seldom given to the first voters of this country 
to start in so important a National contest, where so much is involved and 
BO many interests are at stake. It is a year, too, when old party divis- 
ions count for little ; when men of all parties are united in th^ common object 
of saving tb e country from dishonor and degradation. It is always safe. 

213 



youpg gentlemen, to array yourselves on the side of your country. (Ap- 
plause.) It is always wise to stand against lawlessness and repudiation. 
<Renewed applause and cries of 'That's right.') It is always patriotic to 
stand against those who are opposed to law and order, and who seek to raise 
artificial barriers between what thoy call classes or sections in the United 
States. (Great applause) I congraulate you upon the glorious opportuni- 
ties you have, and appreciating those opportunities I am sure you will use 
them for the welfare of the people and the glory of the country. (Cheers.) 
My fellow citizens, I ventured a few weeks ago to suggest in a public speech 
that it would be better to open the mills than to open the mints. (Great 
cheering and cries of 'That's right.') I see that some of our political adver- 
saries criticise the statement saying that it is 'putting the cart before the 
horse.* They seem to think that the way to open up the woolen mills, for 
example, is to start a yard-stick factory. (Great laughter and applause.) 
They forget that you must make cloth before you can .measure it, (renewed 
laughter) and that the weaver must be employed before the yard-stick is 
required. (Applause.) But they say the yard-stick is too long. I answer if 
you make the yard-stick nineteen inches instead of thirty-six inches, its 
present length, you will not increase the output of cloth, or its value, or give 
an additional day's labor to the American weaver. (Great applause.) Nor 
will a fifty-two cent dollar increase our industrial enterprises, add to the 
actual earnings of anybody, or enhance the real value of anything. (Great 
applause and cries of 'That's right ') It will wrong labor and wreck values, 
and has done so wherever it has been used. (Great applause and cries of 
'That's right.' More cloth might require more yard-sticks (laughter) but 
more yard-sticks or shorter ones will not create a demand for. more cloth. 
(Eenewed laughter and cries of 'Good, good.') Nor will short dollars from wide- 
open mints free to all the world, increase our factories. (Applause and cries 
of 'You are right.') More factories at work will find use for the good dollars 
now in their hiding places and find employment for the good men now idle at 
their homes. (Tremendous cheering.) Industry must come first; labor pre- 
cedes all else. It is the foundation of wealth ; it is the creator of all wealth. 
(Applause.) Its active employment puts money in circulation, and sends it 
coursing through every artery of trade. (Great applause and cries of 'That's 
right.') The mints don't distribute it in that way. (Cries of 'You bet they 
don't.') Start the factories in full blast and the money will flow from bank 
and vault. The lender will seek the borrower, not, as now, the borrower the 
lender. (Great cheering and cries of 'That's right.') Start the factories and 
put American machinery in operation and there will not be an idle man in the 
country who is able and willing to work. There will not be an American 
home where hunger and want will not disappear at once (great applause and 
cries of 'That's right') and there will not be a farmer who will not be cheered 
and benefitted by his improved home market and by the better and steadier 
prices for his products. (Renewed applause and cries of 'That's right.') 
Credits will take the place of debts. The wasted earnings of the poor will be 
restored. A surplus will take the place of a deficiency in the public treasury 
(cries of 'That's right') plenty and prosperity will return to us again. Do 
not forget, men and women of Wood county, that you can not coin prosperity, 
(great cheering) nor revive our industries through the mints. (Great 
Applause and cries of 'That's right.') They come through labor and confidence, 
akill, enterprise and honesty— and they will come in no other way." (Great 
applause.) 

249 



VETERANS AND FIRST VOTERS OP flUNCIE. 

The city of Muncie, Indiana, sent a delegation of about five hundred people- 
to Canton, Wednesday, September 23rd, to extend greetings to Major McKixley 
and to emphasize their desire to return to the conditions of 1892, The delega- 
tion arrived on a special Cleveland Terminal and Valley train betvreen three 
and four o'clock, Wednesday afternoon, having traveled 265 miles and been on 
the road from seven o'clock in the morning. The delegation was accompanied 
by two bands, the Muncie City and the Indiana Iron, and by two drum corps, 
the latter in most gorgeous uniforms. Members of one wore the brightest of gold 
suits and the other Continental uniforms of striking design. The delegation 
was in charge of Messrs. William Wildman, R. T. Patterson, R. L. AVilliamsox, 
C. M. KiMBAUGH and J. W. Ream. It included the old soldiers of Muncie, the 
McKinley Prosperity Club and the First Voters' Club. The spokesman was 
Mr. E. A. Needham, one of the first voters, who said : 

"Major McKixley : We come to your home this afternoon to assure you of 
our sincere confidence in the principles of the Republican Party and of our 
faith in the sincerity of purpose of its candidate for th'^ highest honor within 
the gift of the American people, and to pledge to you our most ardent support 
in the political campaign now upon us. AVe come from the farms and the shops, 
the stores and the factories of the Gas Belt of the Hoosier State to greet 
the chief citizen of our great Nation who will be our President after March 4th, 
1897. AVe como with the tide of honest American sentiment that is notdrifting- 
but rushing on toward an overwhelming victory in behalf of reciprocity, pro- 
tection and honest money. Until the advent of Democratic rule in our Gov- 
ernment in 1892 wc were a very prosperous community. Our towns had grown 
into cities, manufactories of various descriptions were planted amongst us, not 
an industrious man was idle and every line of business pursuit was energized by 
confidence and stimulated to activity by the settled and well defined policies of 
the Republican Party. AVe know that this condition of affairs prevailed 
under a Republican Administration, with Indiana's own son in the Executive 
Chair, and we realize that these conditions were brought about and made possi- 
ble by protective legislation, by the law which you gave us and which justly bears 
your honored name, tlie McKinley law. (Cheers.) We need not reiterate our 
present condition under free trade influences and Democratic mismanagement^ 
but we want to return to the times of 1892. We believe that we must return 
to the principles of protection, and that as in the past you have advocated home- 
protection, that you will in the high place at the Nation's head exercise your 
preogative in vindicaticn of American labor. We believe that you are the 
laborer's friend, and tliat the election of you to the Presidency will mark the 
beginning of an era of progress to every American enterprise and to* every 
American toiler. AA^e exalt old Columbia to the highest place in the roll of 
nations, and we believe the best is none too good for the American, and hence 
we are opposed to the adoption of the financial policies promulgated by the 
Chicago Convention, but are in favor of the best money because we are the best- 
nation. AAlien again the laws of protection are placed upon our statute books- 
and the factories of magic Muncie are reopened and our laborers return to tlie 
shops, we do not want them compensated with a fifty-three-cent dollar, but 
with an honest dollar worth everywhere and forever more one hundred cents. 
From the awful depth into which our Nation and its people have been thrown 
by free trade policies, we turn our eyes hopefully to the grand old Republican 
Party for relief and to you its standard bearer — to you who have given your 

250 



'j^s to the study of industrial questions — to you who Imve borne the banner of 
protection to victory through political contests, or proudly waved it in defeat 
— to you who still bear aloft the same mighty banner, the industrial hope of 
this gi*eat country. (Applause.) Thirty years of public service give us 
evidence of your gi-eat pei-sonal worth and your lofty conception of man's duty 
to his fellowman in the capacity of a public official. And now, on behalf of the 
First Voters' McKinley Club of Muncie, of your brave comrades who fought by 
your side to preserve the flag, and of the many other Republicans of Muncie and 
surrounding communities, and of many young men of Democratic antecedents 
who place country before party and will cast their first votes for the comrade of 
their fathers, I congratulate you upon your bright prospects for the position to 
which you justly aspire, and the Republican Party for having chosen you for its 
leader." (Applause.) 

Major McKinley responded in an earnest address covering the issues of the 
campaign which was warmly applauded. When he had concluded Mr. R. L. 
Williamson on behalf of the donor, F. H. Rodman, presented Major McKinley 
with one of the novelties of the campaign. It was a portrait of McKinley and 
HoBART framed in a loaf of bread, the loaf being fashioned after a neat design. 
It was made from flour ground in Muncie the wiieat having been raised by farm- 
ers of that vicinity, and was emblematic of the farming and laboring interests. 
After the speeches and the presentation, each of the visitors was personally 
greeted by Major McKinley Much enthusiasm was shown by the visitors during 
the reception and their stay in Canton. The confidence which every one of the 
visitors had in an overwhelming Republican victory in Indiana is significant. 
They refused to entertain any suggestion of Indiana as a doubtful State, and 
almost to a man predicted that the State's Republican plurality this year will 
be the largest ever recorded. 

riajor flcKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Needham and My Fellow Citizens : It is needless for me to say hat- 
lam greatly honored in receiving this call from my fellow citizens of Muncie, 
Indiana. I am glad to meet the first voters, the old veterans, and the citizens 
generally who have called to give me assurances of support, and to tender ex- 
pressions of good will and congratulation. I must congratulate this assemblage 
of Indianans upon the selection of their spokesman who has delivered before 
me so able, eloquent and telling a speech. (Applause.) He has said that 'it is 
understood that I am an American.' This is altogether true. (Applause and 
cries of 'We all know that.') I believe in America for Americans— native born 
and naturalized. (Cries of 'Good.') I believe in the American pay roll. 
(Laughter and applause.) And I do not believe in diminishing that pay roll by 
giving work to anybody else under another flag while we have an idle man 
under our own flag. (Tremen dous applause.) Four years ago the laborer as 
agitating the question of shorter hours, we then had so much to do. But I 
have heard no discussion of that kind since then. (Laughter and applause.) 
But I have never heard of the laboring man discussing the desirability of having 
short dollars. The complaint— the chief cause of complaint— of our oppo- 
nents is, first, that we haven't enough money; and, second, that our money is 
too good. (Laughter.) To the first complaint I answer that the per capita of 
circulating medium in this country has been greater since the so-called crime 
of 1873 than it ever -was before. (Applause. ) It has been greater in the last five 
years than ever ft was before in all our history. (Cries of 'That's right.') ^^'e 

251 



Jiave not only the best money in the world, but we have more of it per capita 
than most of the nations of the world. (Applause. ) We have more money per 
capita than the United Kingdom, than Germany, than Italy, than Switzerland, 
Greece, Spain, Roumania, Servia, Austria, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Den- 
mark, Russia, Mexico, and the Central and South American States, and more 
than Japan or China. (Great applause. ) So that some reason, rather than the 
lack of volume of money, must be found to account for the present condition 
of the country. To the second complaint that our money is too good, it would 
seem to be enough to say that the money of our country can not be too good ; 
and that no nation ever suffers from having its medium of exchange of the 
highest and best quality. ( Great applause. ) It has been poor money— not good 
money— that has been the cause of so much loss and ruin in the past, both to 
individuals and to nations. (Applause.) The older men of this audience will 
remember that before the war we did business with an uncertain and fluctuat- 
ing currency known as State bank money. Some of these banks and their notes 
were absolutely sound ; but for the most part they were subject to a discount. 
The total number of banks in 1859, exclusive of State bank branches, was 1,570. 
■Of this number ,the "Counterfeit Detector, then in constant use, reported 832 as 
'broken, closed, failed, fraudulent and worthless.' The notes of these banks 
were in circulation among the people, and had been received by them for their 
good labor and their good products. They were absolutely worthless, and of 
no more value than the paper on which they were printed. Upon whom did 
this loss fall ? My fellow citizens, there is scarcely an old gentlemen in this 
audience who will not recall that it fell upon the laboring men and farmers of 
the United States. (Cries of 'That's right,' and applause.') I allude to this 
only to show that those who suffer most from poor money are least able to bear 
the loss. It is the history of mankind that the least valuable money, which 
will pass current, is the money that at last finds its resting place among the 
poorer people, and when the crash comes, the loss must be borne by them. And 
I doubt if there is a man in this audience who has not among the belongings of 
his family or the family of his fatlier some of that old bank paper as a reminder 
of what they lost. (A voice, 'I have $10 at my home myself.' ) I can not imagine 
any interest that can be permanently subserved by having poor money. The 
bare suggestion of such a proposition to a man of reason meets his instant 
rejection. You will remember that from 1862 to 1879 we did business with 
paper money exclusively ; we had neither gold nor silver. You will remember, 
too, that gold was constantly at a premium, ranging from forty to a hundred 
per cent. Then when a man wanted to borrow money, he had to pay a higher 
rate of interest than he has had to pay since 1879 on a gold basis. ( Ipplause.) 
When we were doing business with a depreciated paper money, interest was 
much higher to the borrower and to the debtor than it is now. I can recall 
when here in Ohio the ruling rate of interest for that paper money was ten per 
•cent annually, and often one per cent a month or twelve per cent a year. Do 
you remember that, men of Indiana? (Cries of 'Yes, yes,' and cheers.) While 
in the days of the greenback currency, we paid from ten to twelve per cent for 
money, the ruling rate here in Ohio now for what some people are pleased to 
call a 'two hundred cent dollar' is six or seven per cent. It may run as high as 
eight, and possibly that has been the ruling rate during the last two or three 
years, but that is because distrust has fallen upon the country, and men who 
have money will not part with it and take chances without a higher rate of 
interest. (Applause.) Money can be borrowed at a lower rate of interest than 
it could have been borrowed at any time from the days of 1860 to the date of 

252 



resumption. What more healthy sign than this fact that a dollar, sound tlie 
world over, can be borrowed at a less rate than ever before ? Money is not 
hard to get because it is scarce, but because those who have it.keep it, fearinj? to 
loan it on account of the unsettled business condition of the country. Money 
to-day is idle because it can not be profitably and safely invested by tliose who 
have it. It is neither a lack of volume of our money nor the quality of the 
money that is our trouble ; but a lack of confidence in the steadiness and sta- 
bility of business. The threat of free silver is driving our money into hiding 
to-day ; the way to bring it out is to restore confidence — and how will you 
restore confidence ? There is only one way. (A voice, 'Vote for McKixley,' 
and great applause.) The way to restore confidence is to defeat, through the 
ballot, the party that destroyed confidence. (Cries of 'Good' and 'That's 
right.') The way to restore prosperity is to defeat, through the ballot, those 
who have destroyed prosperity. (Tremendous applause.) We cannot restore 
the business of the country so long as we do so much of our work abroad. 
(Cries of 'That's right.') Let us bring it back home again for our own people 
and labor. (Continuous cheering.) We do not believe that the way to restore 
confidence is through the mints of the United States. (Cries of 'No, no, you 
are right.') We can only restore confidence and prosperity — not through a 
debased currency — but through a policy that will restore the needed revenues 
to the public treasury and rekindle the fires in American workshops. (Great 
cheering.) I thank you, my fellow citizens of Muncie, more than I can find 
words to express, for the compliment, courtesy and honor of this call. You 
have come a great distance and I appreciate your coming because it is an as- 
surance to me that you believe that the success of the Republican cause will be 
for the welfare and prosperity of the people of the country. (Applause.) I 
will be very glad, indeed, to meet and greet each of you personally." 
(Applause.) 

WESTHORELAND COUNTY. 

Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, furnished the first as well as the 
last delegation on the McKinley lawn, Thursday, September 24th. The party 
was so large that the train was in four sections, the first preceding the last by 
several hours. The first arrivals were from West Newton and numbered about 
three hundred people, headed by the West Newton Band and McKinley and 
Hobart Club. They came via the Cleveland, Canton and Southern Railroad 
about eleven o'clock. The party was introduced by Mr. W. S. Van Dyke, a 
prominent business man, who paid a glowing tribute to Major McKixley end 
his public career. He assured him that Pennsylvania would give him a plurali- 
ty of 300,000, or more. During the Oil City reception the other trains from 
Westmoreland County arrived, bringing the following delegations: From 
Greensburg, including the Republican Club, 1,200; from Scottdale, 300; from 
Latrobe, 600; from Ligonier, 200, and from the coke camps of Heckler, Mam- 
month and Mt. Pleasant, 400. These arrived in three special trains on the 
Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railroad, the last at about two o'clock. 
Although it kept them busy, there were detachments from the Pennsylvania 
Society, the Canton Troop and the Citizens' Committee to do escort duty for- 
each ttain. The three train loads were organized into one large parade in 
which were the West Newton Band, the Latrobe Band, H. C. Denny's Band, 
of Ligonier, the Greensburg Band, and three drum corps. Among the banners 
carried was this: "16 to 1 — 16 men out of work to one who has a job." That 
'same old coon' was carried on a pedestal, and there were many club banners 

253 



and flags. When the crowd had gathered on the hiwn, Col. George F. Huff, 
Congressman from the Scottdale district, was introduced as spokesman and 
made a hearty congratulatory address, giving assurances of most zealous 
support to the Republican cause. 

Major McKinley's Responses. 

" Mr. Van Dyke axd My Fellow Citizens ; I had not expected to meet the 
people of "Westmoreland County in companies. I had supposed you would 
come to-day in a united body and that I might have an opportunity of address- 
ing you all together, but it seems there are so many Republicans this year that 
when they make <•. journey they have to come in sections. (Laughter and ap- 
plause and cries of 'That's right.') There is no sort of objection to being divid- 
ed now, but I trust that on the third day of November you will all be united. 
(Cries ot 'We will.') I count it a very great personal pleasure to meet and 
greet the people of West Newton. I recall your busy and enterprising city with 
gi'eat satisfaction. I remember the only visit I ever paid to you and at that 
time I found your city one of the most active and prosperous in the whole coun- 
try. I regret to hear fi'om your spokesman that all that is changed, and where 
plenty and prosperity presided, want and despair now sit. This naturally leads 
to the inquiry, what has occasioned it ? Such is the thought in every man's 
mind ; this is the question that is uppermost with aU of us. We have the same 
country we had four years ago ; and we have the same splendid resources, the 
same farms, the same factories, the same mines, the same sturdy, enterprising 
people that we had then, and what is the reason we have not the same prosper- 
ity now ? The reason is not hard to discern. For more than thirty years we 
lived in this country under a protective tariff — a tariff that protected and en- 
couraged American enterprise and American industry ; a tariff that made us in 
that period of time the greatest nation in the world in manufactures, in mining 
and in agriculture ; a system that protected everything in this country against 
similar things made in Europe; a protection to every American interest against 
conflicting foreign interests.. Now that protection has been partially removed 
and when the people of this country in 1892 decreed that there was to be a 
change of policy and that we were to go from a protective policy to a partial 
free trade policy, or a revenue tariff policy, then uncertainty hung over the 
country and no man knew what to do. No man could count upon what the 
future would bring ; no man knew when he mined coal how much he would get 
for it; no man knew when he put the raw material into one end of the factory 
how much he could get for it when it went out at the other. On account of the 
uncertainty which hung over us, because of the anticipated competition from 
other countries, the business of the country was at once depressed and for four 
years we have been suffering because our own industi-ies were not prosperous. 
But while our industries were not prosperous the industries of other countries 
were. Now, I am one of those who believe that it is the business of this country 
to make laws for the benefit of our own people. (Loud applause.) I believe 
the business of this free government is to preserve the American market to the 
American producer, whether in the factory or on the farm, and to preserve the 
American mines and the American mills for the American workingman. 
(Cries of 'That's right' and applause.) This is all there is to a protective tariff. 
We want tariff enough in this country put upon foreign goods that compete 
with ours to make up the difference between the wages paid labor in Europe 
and the wages paid labor in the United States. Tremendous applause and 

254 



cries of 'That's right.') "We want the difference between American conditions 
made up by a protective tariff on the foreign products that compete with the 
American product. This is the policy pursued by the Republican Party ever 
since it came into power. Then we want to restore business confidence. We 
do not want cheap money any more than we want cheap labor in the United 
States. (Cries of 'That's right.') When the miners of West Newton have dug 
coal by honest toil they want to be paid in dollars that are equal to the best 
dollars of the world and will not depreciate in the future, but will be as good 
on one day and in one country as in another. (Cries of 'That's wliat we want.') 
The Eepublican Party does not conceal its purposes, they are an open book. 
Everything that the Republican Party believed in when it was in power it wrote 
into public law. It has no aim but the public good ; it has ever stood on the side 
of our country and its flag. Its great central idea has always been the welfare 
of the people, and all the people, and every principle that it has ever advocated 
has embraced the highest good for the greatest number of American citizens. 
This has been the policy of the Republican Party for nearly a third of a century ; 
it is the policy of the Republican Party to-day. For the Republican Party ad- 
vocates its principles no less in defeat than in victory, and these principles 
are dearer to the American people to-day than they have ever been before. 
(Applause.) Now what we want is to write on our ballots next November what 
we think is best for us, best for our labor, best for our wages, best for our 
mines, best for our factories and our farms, best for our families and our chil- 
dren. Let your ballot represent these considerations, my fellow citizens, and 
the Republican Party need not fear of triumph on the third day of Novem- 
ber. (Applause.) I thank you for this pleasant and interesting call, and it 
will give me great i)leasure to shake each and every one of you by the hand." 
(Three cheers for McKinley.) 

"Colonel Huff AND My Fellow Citizens op Westmoreland County: I 
thank you one and all for the good cheer which you bring me to-day. I thank 
you for the generous assurances of support which Col. Huff has been pleased to 
present in your behalf. (Three cheers were here given for Col. Huff.) It gives 
me especial pleasure to welcome you when I reflect on the long distance you have 
traveled and the great discomforts to which you must have been subjected and 
that you have come here to testify your devotion to Eepublican principles and 
your desire for the success of the Republican cause. (Applause.) I esteem it 
in one sense as a personal gi-eeting, but I value it far more highly as an endorse- 
ment of the great principles which I have, for the moment, the honor to repre- 
sent—the great and everlasting principlesof the Republican Party. (Applause.) 
Principles in such a contest are everything ; they are masterful and everything 
else must be subordinated to them. In this contest old party lines are being 
more or less effaced and patriotic citizens are coming together upon a common 
platform to sustain the public honor and good faith of the Government of the 
United States. (Great cheering.) This contest in some of its aspects is the old 
yet ever new and eternal contest between right and wrong. Standing for the right, 
as we believe— for can there be any doubt about it, that standing for National 
honor. National credit and National currency and the supremacy of the law. is 
standing for the right ? Can there be any doubt about that, my fellow citizens 
of Westmoreland County ? (Cries of 'No,' 'No,' 'Never.') Lincoln said in 
one of his great debates with Douglas: 'It is a question between right and 
wrong ; that is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this coun- 
try when these poor tongues of ours are silent. It is the eternal struggle be- 
tween these two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. They are 

255 



two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time and will 
ever continue to struggle until the right shall ultimately triumph.' - The prin- 
ciple for which Mr. Lincoln contened, the limitation of slave territory and the 
final abolition of slavery itself, did triumph most gloriously to the satisfaction 
eventually of every patriotic citizen, both North and South. We are confronted 
this year with a question of not mere partisan difference but with a great moral 
principle. Such a question, I admit, ought never to enter into political discussion^ 
but it having arisen it must be courageously met by the American people and 
settled once for all upon the eternal principles of right, justice, and honor. (Ap- 
plause and three cheers for McKinley.) » But fellow citizens what is the proposi* 
tion gravely presented to us ? Both great political parties of this country, the 
Republican and Democratic, have at different times, in the most deliberate 
manner, placed upon the statute books of the United States the express 
declaration that 'all our money, whether gold, silver or paper, shall be kept 
equal in value by every resource at the command of the Government.' (Tre- 
mendous cheering.) In opposition to this formal, legal and binding declaration 
there are those who propose to deliberately annul that solemn contract — by 
lawful means it is true, but without pretense or intention to make good the loss, 
it would entail upon any citizen, orwithout any provision whatever against the 
great depreciation it would occasion every holder of our Government securities, 
and the just claims of our pensioners and other honest creditors. The proposi- 
tion they make is to put this country upon a monometallic basis, and that basis a 
silver one, resting on a depreciated and depreciating coin, a coin fluctuating ia 
value from day to day — and what would be the result ? It would drive fi-om 
circulation all the other money of the country, for it must be remembered that 
the nations of the world which are on a silver basis use no gold, but the nations 
that are on a gold basis always use silver. If the suggestion is made that thi& 
course involves the good faith and honor of the Govornment and would for the 
first. time cause partial repudiation of just obligations, the answer is made that 
our creditors should expect nothing better, that they have a right to ask for noth- 
ing more. I protest that they have aright to expect nothing of that sort from the 
Government of the United States, which has so far never repudiated a single 
debt it ever made. (Applause.) To my mind the question involves a distinct 
issue between right and wrong, between honor and dishonor; and I believe it 
will, on reflection, be so considered by an overwhelming majority of the Ameri- 
can voters on the third of November next. (Tremendous applause and cheer- 
ing.) ,We cannot afford to trifle about a matter so serious and vital to our stand- 
ing and welfare as apeople, and I appeal to you, my fellow citizens, and to all who 
love their country and its institutions to rise in their might and defeat this un- 
worthy appeal by such a vast majority as will put it to rest forever. You come 
from the coal regions of Pennsylvania, for, if I remember correctly, Greensburg 
is the center of that industry. Aside from the question of good money and the 
maintenance of our National honor, the other issue of this campaign is the 
restoration of our protective policy, a policy unfortunately in part abandoned 
four years ago, but never, I think, more strongly supported in the hearts of our 
.imerican people than it is to-day. (Cries of 'You are right.') You may not 
agree with me but I believe it is a good plan for the American people, so far as 
possible, to do all their work at home, (tremendous applause) to encourage the 
American market by protecting the American laborer against the poorly 
paid laborer of foreign countries ; to strengthen and encourage American 
factories and enterprises and protect our markets by a judicious tariff 
against the products and goods of other countries which we can pro- 

256 



duce and then exchange them for the products and goods we can f.ot produce, 
on terms alike honorable to both, (Applause.) I think it is patriotic and 
profitable, for example, to use American coal rather than foreign coal. 
(Cries of 'You are right.') I thjjik the use of foreign coal which makes 
idle miners in the United States is a most expensive experiment for the Ameri- 
can people. We must go back to the policy and conditions of 1890 and start our 
factories and increase our demand for American coal. We must re-establish 
the system by which we increased the output of coal in the mines of the United 
States from 71,000,000 tons in 1880 to 141,000,000 tons in 1890; that increased the 
value of our annual product from $95,000,000 in 1880 to $160,000,000 in 1890 ; that 
increased the number of persons employed in our coal mines from 170.000 in 
1880 to 299,000 in 1890; that paid in wages to those miners in 1890, $100,000,000 
as against $55,000,000 in 1880, and that made profitable an investment in coal 
mining of $342,000,000 in 1890, as against $261,000,000 in 1880, Most of the devel- 
opment of that period was in the mines of the South, and not in those of Penn- 
slyvania and Ohio, but we can stand and have always encouraged home compe- 
tition. It is our own people, blood of our blood, owing allegiance to tlie same 
flag that have made this wonderful development in the Southern States of our 
country. We congratulate them and rejoice with them. It is the foreign com- 
petition from which we must protect ourselves. (Continued cheering.) What 
w^e want above all is to encourage both home production and home competition. 
Let us have it all in the great American family, whose charge should always be 
our special concern. We are especially honored to-day by the presence among 
us and here on the porch by my side, of Samuel Elder, of Ligonier, Pennsly- 
vania, who voted in 1828 for General Jackson, and has been voting steadily ever 
since for American development, American advancement and American honor. 
(Applause.) General Jacksox differed from the Chicago Democratic Conven- 
tion. He was in favor of sound money and a protective tariff. (Great ap- 
plause.) I am glad to meet this veteran of sixteen Presidential campaigns here 
to-day, and I feel proud of the fact that he is this year in favor of the great 
doctrines of the Republican party, and profoundly interested in its success. 
May his long and honorable life be still further prolonged, and may his declin- 
ing years be the happiest of his long and useful career! (Cries of 'Amen'.) If 
we shall but approach the patriotism of the great men he has supported, if we 
shall enter upon this campaign with the love and devotion to country which 
characterized Jackson, Adams, Clay, Harrison, Taylor, Scott and Fremont, 
Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, Hayes, Arthur, Blaine and Harrison, I am sure 
we will have discharged every requirement of good citizenship, and exercised 
every advantage of the matchless opportunities of American voters. (Applause 
and cries of 'You are right.') I thank you— I thank both him and you for this 
visit, I appreciate the honor you have done me and the splendid tribute you 
have paid to the cause which I represent. (A voice, 'We will do better in Novem- 
ber.') My friends say they will do better in November. (Cries of 'We will.) 
After all, then is the final test. This is the moment of discussion ; the solemn 
and supreme act of the citizen will be performed on the third day of November, 
when he goes into the election booth with none' present but his God, himself 
and his conscience, to deposit his ballot, the ballot of an American citizen 
and sovereign. I pray that the ballots of my countrymen this year and every 
year of our history shall be thrown on the side of good morals, good politics, 
good government, good laws and exalted patriotism," (Tremendous applause.) 



257 



OIL CITY AND VENANGO COUNTY. 

Thursday, September 24th, was distinctively a Pennsylvania day in Canton. 
The Keystone State had sent numerous delegations to greet the Republican 
standard bearer, and made many pleasiifg demonstrations in his honor, but 
none surpassed the charm of those of this great holiday. The West Newton 
crowd, the first from Westmoreland County, was followed in a short time by 
a delegation from Oil City, Venango County. This delegation occupied sixteen 
coaches and came as one special train over the Cleveland, Canton and South- 
ern Railroad. It included the McKinley and Hobart and the First Voters' 
Clubs, an excellent band and many citizens, the whole party numbering about 
one thousand. But the most unique feature of the demonstration was that of 
a floral representation of the States of the Union, participated in by forty-five 
young ladies. They marched in the parade, each wearing a light colored sailor 
hat with band of red, white and blue ribbon, and each carrying a basket of 
magnificent roses, from the Oakwood Rose Gardens, a streamer of ribbon in 
each bearing the name of some State. As a part of the reception after the 
addresses, the young ladies, one by one, marched up to the porch to be present- 
ed to Major McKinley, passed the basket of flowers to an elevated platform 
of pyramidal design at the south end of the porch and then went into the parlor 
to be received by Mrs. McKinley. When the floral pyramid was complete the 
effect was magnificent and the flowers were left there to be admired by the 
crowds during the remainder of the afternoon, when they were sent by Mrs. 
McKinley to the Aultman Hospital, and to other unfortunate sick people 
throughout the city. 

Hon . Amos Steffee was master of ceremonies, and made a happy speech, in- 
troducing Hon. W. J. HuLiNGS as spokesman of the party. Mr. Hulings 
made a bright and witty address speaking of the resources of Pennsylvania, of 
her people and of their desires in the present political contest. He was fre- 
ijuently interrupted by cheers as he spoke. Major McKinley's reception as he 
stepped upon a chair to respond was a most enthuiastic ovation, and his 
remarks were constantly greeted with loud and long continued applause. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

My Fellow Citizens of Oil City, Ladies and Gentlemen: This is indeed 
a great honor and tribute to a patriotic and noble cause. I shall never forget 
the picture before me as long as I live, but I shall cherish in memory this mag- 
nificent assemblage representing every occupation and calling in life, men and 
women, first voters and veterans — and these bright and pretty young ladies, for 
I heartily endorse what your spokesman has said about the intelligence and 
beauty of the young ladies of Oil City. (Great cheering.) My fellow citizens, 
what could be more beautiful or inspiring than to have these young ladies 
representing every State of the American Union, that glorious, unbroken 
Union, that never to be broken Union, that indestructible Union of indivisible 
States, here on this lawn to day, to testify their devotion to the principles and 
purposes and aspirations of this American Republic ? What a glorious Union 
we have ! It represents more than any other nation of the world and the best* 
hope of mankind anywhere in the world. This Union in a little more than one 
hundred years has done more for the human race than any other nation of the 
world and it is only just entering upon its career and progress. How we should 
love this grand Union ! God move our hearts to stand in every crisis of the future 
as our fathers stood in every crisis of the past. (Great applause.) We ought to 

258 



iove it; we ought to forever love it for w^hat it has done for us. (Renewed 
applause.) I am especially glad, my fellow citizens, to meet this large and 
representative delegation from your enterprising city. I congratulate you 
upon your wonderful development and the advancement of your local material 
resources unknown and undeveloped until touched by the magic wand of Ameri- 
can skill and invention, both of which were so greatly quickened by our long 
established and wise industrial system. We have had many marvelous changes 
in the economy of our homes since the close of the Rebellion, but I recall none 
that have been more complete and surprising than those of our fuel and light, 
nor the growth of any industry that has been so rapid in many respects and so 
widely beneficial as that in which Oil City is so prominent and conspicuous. 
(Great applause.) You come from the great oil district of Pennsylvania, and 
know better than I can tell you the amazing growth of your industry. Oil 
City, I take it, Mr. Chairman, has had a most interesting and somewhat roman- 
tic history as the principal market of the Pennsylvania oil regions, and for that 
matter for all of the States producing oil, and has made wonderful progress 
since petroleum was first shipped to you by rafts or flatboats until now when 
you have so great a trade by railroads and pipelines. But I am glad to know 
that your oil refineries and oil well supply companies are by no means your 
only industries. You have gone on developing American productive enterprises 
until your boiler, tube, wagon, barrel, organ, machine and other shops have a 
capital of $2,668,000, employ about 2,500 hands, and pay an average of $5,000 
per day for labor in your various industries. (Applause. ) Such thrift in a city of 
14,0(X) inhabitants is, indeed, to be commended; but did you ever reflect that 
this is just what we have— or did have— all over the United States ? The great 
inen who founded Pennsylvania and have guarded her interests since, very prop- 
erly turned their attention to the establishment and encouragement of manu- 
factures, with such marked success that the great Keystone State has become 
not only a hive of industry but a commonwealth of prosperous traders and 
farmers and contented homes. (Great applause and cries of 'Hurrah for Penn- 
sylvania.') The industrial system I favor for our country is the system of the 
fathers— a system which came in with the Government ; a system under which 
we enjoyed the highest degree of prosperity ; a system which seeks the same 
relative growth in population, the same increase in wealth, the same diffusion 
of prosperity everywhere that you have enjoyed in Pennsylvania. (Applause.) 
If you will but glance at the census map showing the proportion of improved 
and unimproved lands in the United States ; if you will consider for an instant 
the cause of our increased population ; if you will take into calculation our 
marvelous resources which are as yet but little known, I think you will agi'ee 
with me that we ought to have a distinct and pronounced industrial and com- 
mercial policy, genuinely American and thoroughly patriotic. (Applause.) Fac- 
tories should increase all over the country for when factories increase mines in- 
crease, and when both mines and factories increase the home market for the farm- 
er increases, and his prices increase. (Great applause and cries of 'That's right.') 
Let us not be disturbed by over production, but rather take means to prevent 
the under consumption of American products by preserving and enlarging our 
home market and extending our foreign market beyond the seas. (Applause and 
cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') Let us continue the policy of Washington, Hamilton, 
Jefferson, Lincoln, Cameron, (applause) Grant, Stevens, (applause) Blaine, 
Garfield and Kelley (applause) and the scores of other distinguished states- 
men whose gi-eat services ma4e this the gieatest and most prosi)eruus country 
of the world. Equal credit could perhaps bw.accorded to others than the ili«s- 

259 



trious names I have mentioned, but greater distinction none can claim. 
(Cheers.) Their first, their noblest, their highest aspirations were for America 
and Americans. (Eenewed cheering.) We want a stronger and better American 
sentiment. (Cries of 'That's right. Major.') We want to cultivate a loftier 
and nobler National spirit. We want to keep high the American name. (Ap- 
plause.) The great men who founded Pennsylvania, the great men who founded 
the Government, the great men who have since sustained it in war and in peace, 
would have revolted at the thought of repudiation and National dishonor. 
(Tremendous cheering.) They would have looked upon a cheap dollar as only 
another form of the inflation heresies that they always steadfastly opposed, and 
which in the end would have degraded the country, but for their invariable 
defeat. (Applause.) They, time and again, denounced free trade, pointing to 
the ill-paid laborers of other countries as conspicuous examples of the wrong 
that would be inflicted by the introduction of such an industrial system here. 
(Cries of 'That's right.') Shall we not heed their admonitions? (Loud cries of 
'Yes ' 'Yes.') We must hold fast to our present excellent financial system 
which they helped to establish, and we must restore that splendid industrial 
policy which enabled this country so rapidly, distinctively and indisputably to 
surpass all others. (Great applause.) This can be done by an overwhelming 
Kepublican triumph at the polls in November, at the election not now six weeks ^ 
distant. (Great applause and cries of 'It will be done.') Men of Oil City and 
Venango County, how will your ballots be cast? (Loud cries of 'For McKinley, 
Protection and Sound Money.') We make no narrow appeal for your suffrages. 
In this contest men are nothing; principles are everything.' (Great applause 
and cries of 'That's right.') Parties are nothing except as they represent a 
patriotic purpose. I ask only that you live up to your full privileges as 
American electors by stamping beneath your feet the unworthy imputation that 
this is a Nation of dishonest debtors and that our workingmen are incapable of 
doing their work at home, or are indifferent to a policy which permits them 
doing it. (Applause and cries of 'We will do it.') We must lift up the stand- 
ard of National honor, and we must pursue no policy that will ever degrade 
American manhood, for when we degrade American manhood, we degrade 
American citizenship (great applause and cries of 'That's right') and in the end 
degrade our country. (Renewed applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') 
I thank you, my fellow citizens, for this demonstration, and for your personal 
greetings and assurances of support and evidences of personal regard. I am 
proud that my ancestors came from the State of Pennsylvania. (Great cheer- 
ing.) It will give me sincere pleasure to meet and greet all of my fellow 
citizens who are assembled about me, and I am sure it will give Mrs. McKixley 
great pleasure to meet the young ladies who are the bearers of the beau^tiful 
flowers, representing our glorious and unbroken Union." (Great cheering.) 

THE GLA5S WORKERS OF flARlON. 

The glass workers of Marion, Indiana, came to Canton on Friday, Septem- 
ber 25th, to pay their respects to Major McKinley, and they arrived before the 
city was wide awake. Some of the members of the liscort Committees went to 
the depot with empty stomachs. Many of the visitors were former Can tonians, 
having gone to Marion with the Canton Glass Company some years ago. To 
give these opportunity to see old friends and visit familiar scenes it was 
arranged to arrive early, call upon Major McKinley and to hold the 
returning train until ten o'clock at night. The delegation, numbering about 
500, arrived in a special train of eight coaches on the Cleveland Terminal ^nd 

260 



Yalley Railroad and the parade was moving toward the McKinley home at 
eight o'clock. Among the visitors were Mayor LA. Von Behkkn, Charles J. 
BocKius, Henry Haymaker, Chairman of the Grant County Executive 
Committee, E. P. McClure, Dr. W. K. Francis, William Feighner, W. C. 
Smith and W. K. Landis of the Marion Chronicle. The Marion City and the 
Soldiers' Home Bands accompanied the delegation and played at the McKinley 
residence as well as about the city during the day. There were many tasty 
banners and striking mottoes carried in the parade, among the inscriptions 
being: "An Honest Dollar and Chance to Earn it/' "McKinley Clubs of 
Grant County, Indiana." "Mexican Greasers we are Nit— Open the Mills." 
"'Grant County will give McKinley 3,000 plurality." "Twenty-one and one 
half per cent off in Wages— We Have Seen Better Times. Grant County Glass 
Workers." Dr. W. R. Francis served as spokesman, and said: 

"Major McKinley: At my back stand five hundred enthuiastic Republi- 
cans from a county which has felt the breath of blighting Democratic pesti- 
lence. We come from the Gas Belt of Indiana to pay our respects to the next 
President. By reason of the accessions of manufacturing industries due to 
our gas, we come with the assertion that our State which has heretofore been 
regarded as doubtful is this year and henceforth emphatically and irretrievably 
Republican. AVe come with the greeting of that State which gave to the 
Nation the matchless Harrison, (cheers) and which will give to the gallant 
Major McKinley, who this year leads us, a majority of 40,000. (Cries of 
"You are too low," "Make it 60,000," and "It will be 50,000 at least") Ours is 
distinctively a manufacturing section and hence has felt the paralysis of 
Democratic inefficiency most keenly and we come to you now with unbounded 
enthusiasm. You need not fear the result in our State. Indiana has learned 
ber lesson and learned it well.- She looks to you to redeem her from the 
industrial paralysis which has fallen upon her like a pall. No where will 
you receive more hearty and enthuiastic support than in the Hoosier State." 
(Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens of the City of Marion and Grant County, Indiana: 
I congratulate you on being first to-day. (Laughter.) No other delegation has 
yet preceded you. (Renewed laughter. ) I bid you, each and every one, warm and 
cordial welcome to my home. I welcome the Republicans and the citizens of 
the Hoosier State— the State of that grand old war Governor, Oliver P. Mor- 
ton (applause) and that splendid President and patriot, Benjamin Harrison. 
(Great cheering.) You are here this morning not to honor me personally, but 
to honor that cause which you love and support. You support that cause. 
because you believe it will insure your welfare and the well being of the 
country. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') You believe in that cause 
because you have tried it, and having tried it, you know you have been more 
prosperous in your occupations under the policy which it represents than you 
have ever been under any other policy. (Loud cries of 'That's right.') If any- 
thing was needed to confirm you in your devotion to the protective policy it 
could be found in your experience of the past four years. Under no other policy 
orprinciples, have you enjoyed that degree of individual or Nationalprospenty 
which for more than thirty years you enjoyed under Republican policy and ad- 
ministrations (applause) and you are here this morning to testify anew your 
devotion to Republican principles and your deep and abiding interest that they 
anay be successful throughout the country next November. (Cries of 'That s 

261 



right.') You are interested in Indiana just as we are interested here in Ohio, 
in agriculture and in manufacturing. You know something in that great gas 
belt of what manufacturing means to any community. You know that where 
there are successful manufactories there is a prosperous city ; and you know 
where there is a prosperous city, there is always prosperous farming in that 
vicinity. (Cries of 'You are right.') The farms about a manufacturing city 
advance in value and the market of the fanner is enhanced every time you put 
up a new factory in any community or city. (Applause and cries of 'Good/ 
'Good.') You have in your city of Marion, as I recall, an industry which manu- 
factures glass that used to be in the city of Canton. Am I right about that ? 
(Cries of 'Yes,* *Yes.') It is a good industry. AVell, now, that fairly illustrates 
my idea. That used to be, I say, a Canton industry. We would very much 
have prefered to have had it remain here, but it was taken away. However, 
it did not go out of our own country. (Great applause and cries of 'Good,* 
'Good.') It went into a neighboring State and, therefore, benefits the American 
family. American workmen still do the work. We share in your good fortune 
and prosperity ; but we would have felt differently if it had gone on the other 
side and out of the United States. (Cries of 'Yes we would.') In a word, we 
want to do our manufacturing at home; (great cheering and cries of 'That's 
right. Major,') and if we can not do it in Ohio, we are willing to have you do it 
in Indiana. (Renewed cheering and cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' what's the matter 
with McKiNLET?') And if we can not do it in Canton, I do not know of any 
city in Indiana in which I would rather have it done than the city of Marion. 
(Great applause.) We want in this country good times, (cries of 'That's- 
right') good wages, (clieers) steady employment, (cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes') a good 
home market (cries of 'Good,' 'Good') and then we want to continue the good, 
sound, round, honest dollars (great cheering and loud cries of 'That's what we 
want') with which to do our business and pay our labor. (Renewed cheering.) 
My fellow citizens, I thank you for this morning call and bid you hearty 
welcome. (Applause.) It will now give me pleasure to meet and greet each- 
of you personally." (Applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') 

MEADVILLE AND CRAWFORD COUNTY. 

Pennsylvania again contributed a delegation to the day's demonstration 
in honor of Major McKinley, on Friday, September 25th. The banner Repub- 
lican county of the State sent a delegation to Canton, with the banner pre- 
sented by the State Committee for the largest Republican majority of any 
county in the campaign of 1887. With the banner came seven hundred people, 
with a number of McKinley and Hobart Clubs, many old soldiers and one hun- 
dred students from Allegheny College, where Major McKinley was studying 
in 1860 when he laid aside his books to take up arms in defense of his country. 
These students marched in a body, each with a large portrait of McKinley 
pinnned upon his back, and the college, yell was given at short intervals. The 
crowd came from Northern Crawford County, with residents of Saegerstown, 
Venango, Cambridgeboro, Atlantic, Geneva, and other towns . The party arriv- 
ed on a special Cleveland, Canton and Southern Railroad train, shortly before 
eleven o'clock. The sentiments of the party were expressed in these mottoes : 
"Sound Money Our Doctrine;" "16 to 1, ]S'it;" "Honest Money for Honest 
Toil;" "Open the Mills— Shut the Mints." Music was furnished by the Sae- 
gerstoxyn City Band and the Northwestern Band of Meadville, Rev. Db. 
Flood, of Meadville, prominent in Chautauqua circles, was spokesman of the 

262 



party. He said they came from a State which the State Central Committee, in 
session last week, said would roll up a Republican majority of 300,000. 
and which another very high authority said would give to protection, sound 
money, good government and McIvinley and Hobart, the grand majority of 
400,000. They came, he said, with the prize banner for the largest Republican 
majority, representing the Republicans of their county ; they came as old sol- 
diers bound to Major McKinley by ties of comradeship ; they came as students 
with half the faculty of Allegheny College, which was honored to have had 
Major McKinley as a student. "We come," he concluded, "to bid you god- 
speed and to assure you that we Will give a mighty majority to make you 
President." Major McKinley responded with an earnest address and gave 
each one, as the crowd filed across the porch, a hearty handshake and cordial 
greeting, at its close. 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

" Dr. Flood and My Fellow Citizens of Crawford Cotjntt and the City 
OF Meadville, Pennsylvania: It gives me genuine pleasure to greet and wel- 
come you here at my home. I remember a year ago to have visited your city and 
county and I never shall forget the warm welcome which I received from the 
faculty and students of Allegheny College and from the old soldiers of North- 
western Pennsylvania, (applause) and I am delighted to have a portion of you 
return my call. (Renewed applause.) I recall with sensations of pleasure and 
satisfaction the brief time I spent in old Allegheny College. It is among the 
dearest memories of my life. The old institution only a year ago conferred 
upon me a very distinguished honor and I trust I may never disappoint its con- 
fidence. (Applause and cries of 'You never will.') I recall, too, that from the 
walls of old Allegheny went out many young men to do battle for^their country, 
and none did better service for the Union and the flag than the young men who 
went from that institution and from the other great institutions of the country 
and from the schools of the land. (Applause.) Your county is a Republican 
county. (Cries of 'You bet it is.') Dr. Flood has already stated that you have 
received a banner for having given the largest Republican majority in 1887 and 
I trust that majority will not be diminished in 1896. (Applause and cries of 'Not 
any.') No matter what may be our occupations in life, we are all interested ingood 
government ; we are all interested in good laws, and we are all interested in 
having general prosperity. (Cries of 'That's right;') Unfortunately we have 
not enjoyed general prosperity during the last three years. (Cries of 'No,* 
'No.') Times have been hard ; business has been depressed; workmen have 
been idle ; farmers were unable to receive a just reward for their husbandry, 
and now the thought of thepeople and the desire of the people is to return to 
the good times of 1892. (Great applause.) Times from which vi-e ran away-- 
for which we have been regretting ever since. (Applause and cries of 'That's 
right.') Now, my fellow citizens, what we want this year is to cast our ballots 
for that party and for those principles which will secure for us the greatest 
prosperity. (Applause and cries of 'That's what we want.') We want no idle 
men in the United States. (Great applause.) We want no idle mills in the 
United States (renewed applause) and to the end that we may liave neither idle 
mills nor idle men, we must do our work in the United States (great cheering) 
and not outside the United States. (Renewed cheering and cries of 'That's the 
stuff.') You may disagree with me but I believe in a protective tariff. [Tre- 
mendous applause and cries of 'So do we.') I always have so believed and I 

263 



have never felt called upon to make an apology to anybody anywhere 
(cries of Good,' Good,' 'You don't have to') for having been devoted to the 
great principle vfhich promotes and encourages American development and 
good wages to American workingmen. (Tremendous cheering.) Then, my fel- 
low citizens, having secui'ed a tariff that will defend American interests, we 
want to continue the use of the good old dollars we have had since 1879. (Gre-at 
applause.) We want no clipped coins in the United States. (Eenewed ap- 
plause.) We want no debased dollars any more than we want debased labor 
(applause) and when men have given a full day's work, to an American em- 
ployer, we want that American employer to jjay him in dollars as good as any 
dollars anywhere in the world and worth one hundred cents each every day'and 
everywhere, (Tremendous cheering.) Then, my fellow citizens, we want 
another thing — we want peace and tranquillity in the United States. (Loud 
applause and cries of 'That's the stuff.') W^e want it established once for all 
that this is a Government of law and by l.aw (renewed applause) and that now 
as always we are a law-abiding people. There is one thing we are proud of and 
that is that the Eepublican Party can subinit its principles to the working man, 
to the farmer, to the student, to the scholar, to those of every calling or profes- 
sion, with confidence, because those principles are right and eternal. (Great 
cheering. ) I thank you most heartily, gentltman , for the kindness and courtesy 
of this call. You have traveled a long distance, not to see me nor to honor me, 
but to honor the great cause which for the moment I represent (applause and 
cries of 'To honor you, too,') and to testify by your presence your devotion to 
the great principles of the Eepublican Party, in which you believe is enveloped 
the highest prosperity of the citizen and the greatest glory of the Eepublic. 
(Great applause.) I thank you, one and all, and it will give me sincere pleasure 
to meet and greet each of you." (Cheering.) 



WYANDOT FARMERS FOR PROTECTION. 

Wyandot County, Ohio, lately a stronghold of Democracy, sent five hundred 
of her sturdy farmers and other citizens to Canton, Friday, September 25th, 
to extend greetings to Major McKixley. They came in a special train of 
nine coaches over the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Eailroad, reaching 
this city about noon. The delegation was cons]3icuous for the large number of 
banners carried, some of whose inscriptions were: "Wyandot Farmers are for 
Protection ;" " Upper Sandusky Farmers are for McKinley ;" "There is no 
Theory about Protection;" "Free Wool has Cost Wyandot Coimty Many 
Thousands of Dollars;" "How many People own Silver Mines;" "Honest 
Money and a Chance to Earn It ;" "Give us a Tariff on AVool ;" "We Know no 
Classes in Our Country and McKinley's Electian Will Eestore Confidence, 
and Confidence Good Times.'' The parade to the McKinley home marched to 
the music of the Little Six Band, of Upper Sandusky. The towns of Upper 
Sandusky, Nevada and Forest were represented. Hon. Egbert Carey, Mayor 
of Upper Sandusky, was master of ceremonies and after expressing the pleasure 
of the people of Wyandot County at greeting the next President of the United 
States in his own door yard introduced General I. M. Kirby for one of the 
introductory addresses. General Kirby paid an eloquent tribute to Major 
McKinley, referred to his campaign visits to Wyandot County and said her 
people had not forgotten the lesson taught them by Major McKijnley nor the 
lessons learned in the costly school of experience in the past few years. 
Wyandot is a pastoral as well as an agricultural county, he said, and until 

264 



i-ecently the Sandusky plains were covered with sheep and the streets with 
wagons filled with wool shorn from those sheep. It took a great sum of money 
to exchange for the wool, but the money was at hand with which to buy. He 
noted with sadness the change that had been wrought. He said that the people 
of Wyandot are for protection because it means comfort, prosperity and happi- 
ness. They are for sound money because they believe in maintaining the 
honor and integrity of the Nation. They are for Major MoKinley because they 
believe that in him these principles are exemplified in the highest degree. 
They will not only pray but work unceasingly till he is elevated to the high and 
lofty position of President of the United States. (Great applause.) 

PiETKo CuNEO, a native of Italy, formerly of Canton, but now editor of the 
Wyandot County Republican, was next introduced and spoke as follows: 

"Major McKiNLEY : It is my supreme pleasure to introduce to you this 
splendid assemblage of my fellow citizens of Wyandot County, Ohio. We have 
come to pay our respects to you and give you assurances of our hearty, earnest 
support as the standard bearer of the Republican Party in this momentous 
contest for the Presidency of the United States. We honor and support you 
because even before you had reached the years of your majority, with gun in 
hand, you bravely fought for the preservation of the American Union, the 
emancipation, enfranchisement and enobling of four millions of slaves and their 
posterity forever. And because we know that your very soul scorns and frowns 
upon [the thought of arraying one class of citizens against another, capital 
against labor, or labor against capital, and I know in your [heart you hold 
that all of God's creatures, whether white or black, native or naturalized, 
should have a fair show in the .ace of life. We support and honor you because 
for a third of a century you have been the recognized, matchless advocate of 
protection to American industries, protection even to the lambs that used 
to adorn our fields and enrich the pockets of t^he farmers, and for which the 
Democratic Congress that gave us the Wilson-Gorman law had not even one 
touch of pity. How sadly the flocks of sheep have dimished and our industries 
languishedi under Democratic inismanagement you can tell better than I. We 
honor and cheer you because you are inexorably opposed to the debasement 
of our currency, the demoralization of business, and because, like the eternal 
Rock of Gibraltar,^ you stand for the maintenance of the integrity and honor 
ofmie Nation. We have come to mingle our voices and joys with those of the 
gallant and victorious Repubicans and brave Democrats of Vermont and 
Maine. I believe that your election in November will be as triumphant, 
brilliant and decisive as was that of 1872, which re-elected that immortal 
and illustrious soldier, patriot Republican and statesman, Gen. Ulysses S. 
Grant. We salute you as the next President of the United States. But, sir, 
this assemblage did not come here to hear me speak but to listen to you, know- 
ing that when you speak from this historic porch, you utter words of wisdom, 
not only to the delighted throngs about you, but to 70,000,000 of American 
citizens and to the nations of the world. May a kind Providence ever smile 
upon you, all who are dear to you, and the noble cause you so ably and worthi- 
ly represent." (Applause.) 

Major McKiNLEY was warmly applauded as he responded, and there was a 
grand rush to shake hands with him after he closed. The members of 
the Wyandot delegation were ver^ sanguine of carrying their county. They 
say large numbers of recruits have come to them from other parties and that 
many such were in their delegation. 



265 



Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens and Ladies and Gentlemen: It gives me great 
pleasure to welcome to my home my fellow citizens of Wyandot County. I 
am glad to be advised that in this audience there are many men who have 
heretofore been associated with another and different party than that to which 
we are devoted. I am especially glad to welcome them here to-day. This is a 
year when party lines have almost disappeared, and when men interested in 
the. welfare of a common country, in the maintenance of its honor, and its 
credit and currency, unite to sustain the party which stands for them. I recall 
as I stand before this audience to-day that for many years it has been my 
custom to journey to your county, and in no county in the State have I ever 
received warmer or more generous welcome than from the people of Wyandot. 
(Great cheering.) At no point in the State or out of the State have lever 
received a more respectful and attentive hearing than from your own good citi- 
zens. (Applause.) I wish the condition of the country was not as we find it, 
I wish it was not so deplorable as it was truthfully described by General 
KiKBY to-day. I wish we were back to the better times between 1880 and 1892; 
but the only way to get back to those good times is to return over the route 
that led us away from them and fight it out on that issue, as my friend has 
suggested. (Great laughter and applause.) We must have in the United 
States an American policy — a policy that will take care of our own ; that will 
defend our own. (Applause.) If we do not do that, noboby will do it for us,^ 
(cries of 'That's right,') and fortunately in this country we have the power 
among ourselves — the mighty ballot — to make just such an administrative and 
executive and legislative policy as we believe will subserve the highest and 
best interests of all the people. (Great applause.; Now, yours is a farming 
population ; I know all about your county. What you want in Wyandot County 
is to have somebody want anfl want badly what you produce on your farms. 
(Cries of 'That's right ') I have discovered that the farmer always gets better 
prices when a lot of buyers are hunting him up rather than when he is hunt- 
ing up buyers. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') I have discovered, too, 
that the workingman always gets better wages when his employer is hunting 
him than when he is hunting his employer. (Applause and cries of 'That's 
right.') Now, what does that signify? It signifies that what the farmer wAts 
is an army of consumers who do not produce wheat and who do not produce 
any of the food products, and the larger that army is the better the farmer is 
off. (Cries of 'That's right, too.') This army of consumers has been reduced 
in work and wages, not in numbers, in the last three years. AVe have just as 
many people as we have ever had, but they have been reduced in their 
capacity to buy what they need. This is what's the trouble in this country 
to-day. . (Applause.) We are not earning as much money as we used to earn. 
We have not as much to spend, because we have^been unable to earn as much. 
What we want to do is to put all the machinery in this country at work. 
(Cheers and cries of 'You are right.') We want every mine in the country- 
opened up. We are tired of having the pick silent in the mine, and 
we are tired having the loom silent in the mills. (Applause and cries 
of 'Correct.') When the pick is silent in the mine and the loom is 
silent in the mills the workingmen of the United States are idle, and 
when the workingmen of the United States are idle the farmer is deprived of 
his best consumers. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKin- 
LBY. Now I take it. My fellow citizens, you know what ticket represents 

266 



increased manufacturing in the United States. (Cries of the 'Republican 
ticket.') You know the ballot which on the 3rd of November will represent 
the great doctrine of protection, the American patriotic policy, which takes 
care of the American people and every American interest. (Great applause 
and cries of 'Yes, we do.') Now, what the farmer is interested in further is 
when he has a customer to whom he sells his good bushel of wheat in a full 
round measure, he wants to be paid in a good, full, round dollar, (applause and 
cries of 'Good,' 'Good,') an uncorrupted and never to be depreciated dollar. 
(Great applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKixley.') This is what the Re- 
publican party stands for this year. Among many other good things, it stands 
for law and order. It stands for the honor of the Government. It stands for 
the honest payment of public debts. It stands for public honor and public 
honesty. (Tremendous cheering.) I thank you for this call, but I know you 
have not had your dinners — Republicans never interfere with dinners and good 
dinners. (Laughter.) So I will detain you no longer. (Great applause and 
cries of 'McKinley is all right.') 

SENECA COUNTY AND TIFFIN. 

Fort Wayne train No. 4, reaching Canton at 1:21 o'clock, Friday afternoon, 
September 25th, carried three extra coaches. They were occupied by citizens 
representing the various interests of TifRn and Seneca County, Ohio', about two 
hundred in all. They were headed by a drum corps and by the local escorts 
were directed to the McKinley home. Here an eloquent address was delivered 
by ]Mi'. George E. Schroth, who also presented, with the compliments of I\Irs. 
Gibson, a framed portrait of the late General William H. Gibson. The portrait 
was most gratefully received by Major McKinley, and in his response he paid a 
touching tribute to his old friend and comrade,. Mr. Schroth said : 

"Major McKinley; We come from good old Seneca County — a county 
that never in its history gave a Republican majority until you became the 
Governor of Ohio . Seneca County, you know, is the land of the blessed — the land 
of farms and factories. We have an idea there that prosperity usually abides 
with us a little longer than it does with any other county in the Union. But 
to-day even our people are in trouble. Even they feel the 'icy fangs and 
churlish chiding of the winter's wind.' Our fairest fields are unremunerative. 
Our factories, though perfectly solvent, are either running on half-time, or are 
entirely closed, awaiting Republican repairs. While they have an abundance 
of means and good money, the trouble with them is the want of oi'ders — the 
want of good and healthy business. These times that test the patience of men 
have fully demonstrated to our laborers and manufacturers that their only 
salvation depends upon a tariff discriminating against the cheaper labor of for- 
eign competition. Our farmers and wool gi-owers have learned to know full 
well that the best market in the world is the one here at home. Hence, like 
the prodigal son, we want to leave the husks of the last four years behind us. 
We are looking for veal cutlets and porter house steak. We are waiting to 
enter into the mansion of the better times to come. This is the message that 
we were instructed to bring you; and, as a memento of this occasion, we bear 
to you from the hands of his good and noble widow, the portrait of one who was 
dear to you — one who held you in the highest esteem and tenderest regard — tiie 
late General William H. Gibson, of Tiffin, Ohio. On that memorable occasion, 
when but a few months ago, you stood by his bier, and spoke those noble 
and tender words of parting, you won the hearts of our people, and they wil) 

267 



oever forget you. Were he living to-day, his eloquent tongue would plead 
again for the cause of the grand old principles which he loved so weU. With 
him the maintenance of his country's honor, her unity, her integrity, and 
her credit was indeed a sacred passion ; and that clarion voice that was wont 
to cheer his soldiers amidst the din and roar of battle, would summon once 
more the shouting throng to a great Eepublican victory. So we, his old neigh- 
bors and friends, have come to give you greeting,— to bring you 'tidings of great 
joy' to come in November— and to wish you godsped in this, your most im- 
portant political mission." (Cheers.) 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens and Ladies and Gentlemen: I have been very 
much moved by the generous message of your spokesman. 1 reciprocate 
the kind words he has uttered, and the generous terms in which he has ex- 
pressed your assurances of good will and support. You could not have brought 
to me a dearer gift, or one that I will cherish more highly, and longer 
cherish, than the picture of my old friend, your frie^ d, the friend of every 
soldier, the friend of the whole country— General Willia.i H. Gibson. (Great 
cheering.) I do not know of a soldier during or since the war whose life was 
more signally devoted to patriotism and love of country. He was a devoted 
worshiper of the flag. His voice was always eloquent for country, for humanity, 
for the private soldier. He moved all hearts with his unrivaled oratory and 
never tired of bearing high aloft the mighty principles of the Eepublican Party 
which he loved and battled for to tlie end of his eventful career. I cherish his 
friendship as a sweet memory. (Applause.) I am glad to meet and greet this 
assemblage of citizens, representing every occupation, from Seneca County. 
(Applause.) I am glad to congratulate your county upon being now in the 
column of Eepublican counties (applause) and I would not have you forget that 
that the only way it has become a Eepublican county is because the Democrats, 
loving their country and wanting prosperity, have joined the Eepublican ranks. 
(Great'applause.) You must keep them with you, and continue to recruit from 
their ranks to your own: (Ai^plause.) This year is an especially good one for 
that sort of recruiting service. (Laughter and applause.) Men of all parties 
this year, as in the great contests of the Civil War, when the Nation was threat- 
ened with dismemberment, are standing together for public honor and honesty, 
for good currency, good ci'edit, and for National good faith. (Applause.) This 
is a year when those who stand opposed to us indulge in glittering promises. 
They offer a remedy which they say will cure all our ills. We might accept 
their services and take their remedies if we had not been doctored by them 
before. (Great laughter and applause) Free trade and free silver are the false 
friends of labor. (Applause.) They lure with promises of cheap commodities and 
cheap money. The partial trial of free trade has proved that the cheap commod- 
ities promised are dear to labor and solely at the cost of labor. Cheap money 
would be equally dear to them, a most costly sacrifice of their highest and best 
interests. We can not but remember the promises that were made to the 
people in 1892 of the universal beneficence which was to follow the inauguara- 
tion of a tariff-f or- revenue-only policy, and with what prodigal bounty it was to 
benefit labor, increase the purchasing power of wages — decrease the price of 
everything it bought, and increase the price of everything it made. (A voice, 
'They did not pan out.') I recall an utterance by the Hon. William M. Springee 
.spoken in the House of Eepresentatives, April 4, 1892, when he was advocating 

268 



free wool. There may be some wool growers in this audience. (Cries of 'Yes.'> 
This is what he said: 'Pass this bill and thousands of feet heretofore bare and 
thousands of limbs heretofore naked or covered with rags will be clothed in 
suitable garments, and the condition of all tlie people will be improved. 
(Laughter.) It will give employment to 50,000 more operatives in woolen 
mills; it will increase the demand for wool, and prices will increase and with 
increased demand for labor wages will increase. Those who favor its passage 
may be assured that they have done something to promote the general weal • 
something to 'scatter plenty o'er a smiling land.' ' Well, the free wool bill 
was passed. Have any of you realized the promises then made? (Cries of 'No,' 
'No.') Wool was made free, and every man in this country knows how poorly 
the performance has tallied with the promises. Instead of adding 
50,000 laborers to the pay rolls of the woolen mills, it has taken off more tlian 
double that number. The price of wool has fallen, and with what effect upon 
the manufacturer I will show hereafter. The wools of Ohio, Pennsylvania, 
West Virginia, Michigan, New York, New England, Connecticut, Indiana and 
Missouri, twenty-four varieties, washed and unwashed, averaged in price in April, 
1890, 30.3 cents per pound, and in April, 1896, 17.4cents per pound, a decline of more 
than 42 per cent. The wools of Texas, California, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, 
Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Georgia, and the South, twenty-six varieties, 
scoured, averaged in price, inApril, 1890,49. Icentsperpound; in April, 1896, 27.4 
cents per pound, adecreaseof44.2 per cent. Other wools, ten varieties, scoured, 
in April, 1890, 45.9 cents per pound ; in 1896, 28.5 cents per pound, a decline 
of 38 per cent. So great a decline can not be found in any other com- 
modity. Ohio XX wool has dropped from 29 cents in 1892, to 18 cents per 
-pound in 1896. This will give you some idea of what free wool has done 
for the wool producers in the United States. How has it affected the manu- 
f iicturer ? It is well known that there is but one customer for the wool 
growers of the United States, and that customer is the manufacturer of the 
United States. The American wool gi'ower has no foreign market to-day. He 
can not compete in any other markets with tlie wools grown on cheap lands and 
by the cheaper labor of other countries. This is his market and when it is taken 
from him it entails loss and I'uin to him. In the first year of free wool 120,000,- 
CKX) pounds of clothing wools came to our ports, an increase of over 300 per cent 
.IS compared witli the largest importations received when a duty was imposed ; 
and the total imports of all classes reached 250,000,000 pounds, while 175,000.000 
pounds was the largest importation ever made under dutiable wools. Have 
these free imports of wool benefited the manufacturer ? (Cries of 'No,' 'No.') 
The two years in which the manufacturers have enjoyed the luxury of free 
wool have been the most disastrous in the history of the American wool manu- 
facturer — greater than the disaster which followed the close of the war in 1812 
or the panics of 1837 and 1857. (Applause.) It is a well known fact that since 
free wool was introduced it has not been possible to make woolen goods in the 
United States with any confidence that they would sell them in the market for 
what it cost to make them. The imports of woolen gocxis following free wool 
were simjily enormous. They averaged .$5,(X)0,000 a month in value, so that at 
the end of the first year under the new law the total value of woolens imported 
had exceeded .$60,000,000, foreign value. In 1895 it is estimated that nearly 
one-half of the woolens which entered into comsumption were of foreign make. 
We have in this country enough woolen machinery to manufacture all the 
goods we need, but it is not all in demand under pre^sent conditions. We murt 
start, if possible, all this machinery in the United* S'iates. (Applause.) While 

269 



ihere are idle American workingmen looking for a job, foreign workingmen 
are exoeedingly busy and unusally well paid, and foreign wool growers are 
sending their wool to the United States while American farmers are selling 
their flocks. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') Bradford, England, alone 
sent us, in 1895, $27,745,000 worth of goods, an increase of 21 per cent over the 
value of her largest exports. So great was the demand for these foreign 
goods that the English manufacturers could not find enough weavers to run 
their looms. While this was going on American looms were silent, and 
American workingmen were idle. Not one-half of the machinery in this 
country is employed. This is the result of free wooHn the United States. (Ap- 
plause.) My fellow citizens, you want to study that word 'free' when it is 
applied to goods or money — it is delusive. Many of the factories are entirely 
closed, others running on half or short time, and it is estimated that not 
one-half of those who were employed in 1892 find employment now. Until the 
fall of 1892 men were constantly employed and at higher rates of wages than 
they had ever before enjoyed. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') The 
manufacturer was looking for workingmen ; now the workingmen are looking 
for work. Then the manufacturer was hunting the employe ; now the employe 
is hunting work. It is said that there is enough wool machinery in the United 
States to give employment to 230,000 men and women and that their wages down 
to 1893 amounted to $80,000,000 annually. But since then $40,000,000 annually 
has been taken away from labor and the once happy and contented homes of 
labor. Contemplating these figures and this condition, what do you think of 
Mr. Springer's prediction? (Great laughter.) Every word of his prophecy 
has proved false; every promise has been broken. (Applause and cries of 
'That's right.') If this is 'scattering plenty o'er a smiling land,' we pray God 
to spare us any more of it. (Great laughter and applause.) Those who prom- 
ised plenty and prosperity under free trade are now assuring us that these can 
only be secured through free silver. (Laughter.) How will free silver stop 
the importation of foreign wool? (Cries of 'It won't.') How can free silver 
■cheek the appalling importations of woolen goods from the old world? (Cries 
of 'It can't do it.') How can free silver preserve the home market to the wool 
producer and the woolen manufacturer? (Renewed cries of 'It can't do it.') 
My fellow citizens, it is as delusive as free trade. (Loud cries of 'That's 
right.') It will only further cripple every interest in the United States. How 
can free silver increase the demand for American labor and American products? 
Answer me that, farmers of Seneca county? (Cries of 'It can't do it.') Re- 
member, fellow citizens, that money does not make business. It never did 
and it never will. Business makes money. Poor money never helped legiti- 
mate business in the history of mankind. It has always hurt it. It is de- 
structive to every interest but that of the speculator. What is true of wool 
is in a measure true of other industries. All have been suffering, if not to the 
same extent, it is because the blow on other industries was not so severe. We 
want in this country a sound Government, and a sound tariff, and sound money. 
We want to take care of this goodly inheritance of ours, and keep it what it 
has been for the most part in all its glorious history, the most prosperous 
land beneath the sun. with more happy and contented homes than can be found 
in any other country of the world. (Applause.) I thank you most heartily 
and warmly for this call, and it will be my pleasure, if it is yours, to give you 
each a personal greetingo" (Great applause. ( 



2,70 



I 



A GREAT DAY AT CANTON. 

Saturday, September 26th, was in many respects, the mosl^ notable day in 
the remarkable campaign of 1896, Except for the meeting formally opening 
the local campaign when the people from all over Stark County joined the dele- 
gations from six States in doing honor to the Republican standard bearer, 
Saturday's crowd was the largest that had yet assembled in Canton. It was 
\-ariously estimated at from 20,000 to 30,000 and the actual number of visitors 
was probably about midway between the two. Major McKinxey addressed 
•eleven distinct meetings, some of them comprising two, three, and even six 
separate delegations. Special trains were steaming into the city all day, and 
•about thirty cities and towns in half a dozen States were represented. After 
the early morning visit of the Peoria (Illinois) Commercial Men and the 
JoxES & Laughlin steel workers, the doubling up of delegations began and thus 
some of the responses of IMajor McKinley were preceded by several congrat- 
ulatory addresses. The lawn from the hour of the first reception till darkness 
fell was never sufficiently deserted to allow free passage to and from the liouse. 
Often the crowd extended into the adjoining streets and yards far beyond 
the reach of human voice With this vast multitude assembled, the usual 
cordial handshakings and personal greetings, most enjoyable features of 
the ordinary receptions, were absolutely impossible. The ^olian Quartet 
was in constant attendance and tlie frequent selections by this excellent musi- 
cal organization were applauded to the echo and enthusiastically encored. 



PEORIA COnriERCIAL flEN. 

The first delegation that arrived on Saturday, September 26th, at the Ft. 
Wayne station was the Traveling Men's Republican Club of P eoria, Illinois 
They reached Canton at 9:10 o'clock, just five minutes ahead of schedule time. 
Eight coaches were required to accommodate the party which came five hundred 
and fifty miles to see and hear Major McKinley. The commercial men left 
Peoria, Friday afternoon at 2:00 o'clock. At Indianapolis they stopped for 
several hours and were addressed by Hon. AVarxer Miller, of New York, 
who was a guest at the same hotel where they took supper. There were three 
hundred of the commercial men and they made a magnificent appearance in 
their marching uniform which consisted of silk hats, linen dusters and old gold 
badges with the inscription "Sound Money, No Repudiation" and the name of 
the organization. Each member carried a red, white and blue pampas plume. 
F. H. Pfeiffer is President of the Club and E. H. D. Coxde, Captain. Spencer's 
Band, the finest in Illinois, accompanied them. The visitors were met at tho 
depot by of the Canton Troop, and the Dueber-Hampden Club, witii 
the Grand Army Band. They went direct to Major McKixley's residence. 
Another day of speech-making, of hand-shaking, of cheering, of shouVitiK, 
of marching and of music by bands and vocal organs began with the arrival of 
the several hundred Commercial Travelers from Peoria, Illinois, who took pos- 
session of the McKinley lawn about 9:20 o'clock, where by a neat manenve.- 
the Canton Commercial Men cleared an open space among the people already 
assembled and the visitors massed, with a pretty evolution. L M. Wh.kv. 
National bugler of the Grand Army of the Republic, sounded the bugle calls of 
the Army in the '60's while the Committee waited on Major McKini '^v. When 
the latter appeared, he was greeted with great cheering and long-contin- 

271 



Bed waving of ihe handsome plumes. Hon. J. V. Graff, Congressman of the 
Fourteenth Illinois District, elected two years ago in the face of a large Dem- 
ocratic majority, and who friends say will be easily re-elected this year 
introduced the party. He said: 

•♦Major McKinley: The Peoria Traveling Men's Republican Club from 
the second city i>i Illinois, and the Fourteenth Congressional District, 
come bringing friendly greetings and assurances of loyalty to you for Presi- 
dent of the United States. You are the choice of our people and that prefer- 
ence will be manifested in November by a large majority in the Fourteenth 
District. You came to our support two years ago and we reciprocate it right 
gladly and follow at once both the promptings of patriotism and personal at- 
tachment. We wish to express our admiration for the comprehensive views 
of the needs of this country expressed in your speeches to visitors from 
different parts of the United States. We wish to give our unqualified 
endorsement to the principles enunciated by you. We also remember 
that while others faltered in 1892 you remained firm in your confidence 
in the correctness of the Republican policy and ultimate judg- 
ment of the American people. Furthermore, warm as is our personal 
regard for you, no less zealously does this Club and the people of our 
district, give their sincere and uncompromising approval to sound money 
and protection as proclaimed by the platform upon which you stand. We 
understand and believe that in the double function which money performs, as 
a measure of values and medium of exchange, fixedness of value is the 
highest and best attribute which it can possess . A money of fluctuating value 
is a forerunner of business distress and is fraught with evil to all. Its conse- 
quences fall most heavily upon the wage earner. We believe that not the 
amountof money per capita is a measure of business prosperity, but its activitv. 
We understand that the mints are not the force which can secure its general 
distribution, but confidence and the proper revenue system will start the wheels 
of commerce, which alone can send money through the arteries of trade. Brain 
and brawn are the only creators of value and the exertion of each and the 
mutual exchange of the fruits of both is the only method by which those who 
have no money can obtain it. The business depression which now exists and 
from which all seek relief was not caused by sound money, neither was the 
prD=iperity from 1879 to 1892 produced by the free and unlimited coinage of the 
workVij silver at 16 to 1, nor indeed by the use of silver, at all, but prosperity 
came to us under the operation of the principles of protection for which you 
stand, and confidence and prosperity fled before our prospective departure 
from protection with the advent of the present Administration," (Ap- 
plause . ) 



riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Congressman Graff and Fellow Citizens: I am glad to greet at my 
home the Traveling Men's Republican Club of the city of Peoria. I can not 
refrain from congratulating you at this time upon the splendid victory which 
you achieved two years ago in electing your present Congressman and turning 
a strong Democratic majority into an overwhelming Republican majority. 
(Great applause and cries of 'We will do it again.') And I am glad to hear from 

272 



so many /oices about me that it is your purpose to do it again. (Renewed ap- 
plause and cries of 'That's right, Major.') I congratulate you upon the thriv- 
ing city and glorious State in which you live. Illinois is now by the census the 
third State in population of the American Union. It has taken the place of 
Ohio, but I have always believed that you took your census while Oliio was 
visiting your great metropolis getting ready for the World's Fair. (Great ap- 
plause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKixley.') I congi-atulate you most heartily 
upon the rank Illinois has taken in population and also the rank she has taken 
in statesmanship. It comes to few States to have given to the Union the 
grand men you have fui'nished — Yates and Oglesby and that splendid soldier, 
patriot and statesman, John A. Logan, (great applause) and that noblest of 
Democrats, Stephen A. Douglas, who loved his country far more than he loved 
his party ana ^ave the whole weight of his mighty influence to Lincoln in 
the ci'ucial period in the history of the Kepublic. (G^eat applause.) And no 
man can think of your great State without recalling that you furnished toman- 
kind and the ages Abraham Lincoln, the gi-eatest statesman of this country or 
any other in the world's history (tremendous cheering) and General Uly-sse."* 
S. Grant, the first captain of the Republic, (Renewed cheering.) "When 
Abraham Lincoln issued his imortal Proclamation of Liberty, the whole world 
knew that wiiat Lincoln decreed Grant would execute with the thunder of his 
artillery. (Great applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') I am glad to know 
that your prospects are so good for a splendid^Republican victory in Illinois this 
year. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'We will give McKixley 150,000.') 
My fellow citizens, what a spectacle to the world is this Government of 
seventy millions of free people, governed by themselves, changing their Ch.ief 
Executive every four years, and their law-making power every two years, 
if it be their will so to do, and the Government going on without halt 
or interruption, working out what seventy millions of people from time 
to time believe will subserve , their highest destiny. More than one hun- 
dred and twenty years have passed since the Government was founded, and in 
every trial of our history we have demonstrated our capacity for self-govern- 
ment, and shown to all mankind the advantages and blessings of the great 
Republic. (Great applause and cries of 'That's right.') Now and then in our 
popular elections, we may have been swayed by passion or moved from our 
moorings by the demagogue, but the American people are never fooled but once 
on a subject (great cheering) for when once deceived they never follow the 
deceiver the second time. (Renewed cheering and cries of 'Right.') I have 
known, and so have you, times in our history when the majority of our people 
were made to believe that certain policies would serve their best interests, 
and when it transpired that they did not, they swiftly turned upon the party 
which deceived them and hurled it out of power. (Criesof 'Good,' 'Good.') And 
thoy willdo itagain. The judgment of tlie people is swift and terrible against 
those who mislead and delude them. The people are never led astray by deceitor 
misrepresentation when they investigate for themselves. This tliey are doing 
liisyearina marked degree. It is of no avail that party leaders appeal to 
Ussion when the people are alive to their own and the public interests. It will 
not do to say to the men who are poor in this world's goods— you must get off 
by yourselves, form a class of your OMm; your interests are opposed to those 
who employ you. That is not enough this year. The poor man inquires— What 
good will that do me, how will that better my condition, how will that bring 
bread to my family or food to my children? Will I be benefitted by despoil- 
ing my employer? Will it give me more employment and better wages to strike 

273 



down those whose money is invested in productive enterprises, which give me work 
and wages? Four years ago it was said that the manufacturer was making too 
much money. You remember it. But that can not be said now. (Laughter 
and cries of 'No,' 'No.') And that the robber tariff, which was enriching him. 
must be torn root and branch, to the end that he should be deprived of 
what some people were pleased to call his 'ill-gotten profits.' The country 
seemed to share in the suggestion, and the trial was entered upon, with what 
result every manufacturer, commercial man, traveling man, and workingman 
best knows. It has been discovered to our hurt and sorrow that you can not 
injure the manufacturer without injuring the laborer. (Applause and cries of 
'That's right.') It has been found, too, that you can not injure the manufac- 
turer without in juring the whole business of the country. (Renewed cries of 
'That's right.') You may close the shops by adverse tariffs because you 
imagine the manufacturer is making too much, but with that done you close 
the door of employment in the face of the laborer whose only capital is his 
labor. (Great cheering.) You can not punish the one without punishing the 
other, and our policy would not inflict the slightest injury upon either. (Ap- 
plause and cries of 'That's right.') In such a case 'getting off together' does 
tiot do either any good. Ai'raying labor against capital is a public calamity 
and an ii*reparable injury to both. Class appeals are dishonest and dishonor- 
able. They calculate to separate those who should be united, for our economic 
interests are common and indivisible. Rather, my fellow citizens, teach the 
doctrine that it is the duty and privilege of every man to rise. That with 
honest industry he can advance himself to the best place in the shop, the store, 
the counting house, or in the learned professions. This is the doctrine of 
equality and opportunity that is woven into every fiber of our National being; 
(great applause) a doctrine which has enabled the poorest boy with the humblest 
surroundings to reach the best place in our great industries and to receive the 
highest trusts which can be bestowed by a generous people. Gentlemen, and I 
speak to my countrymen everywhere, if you have not yourselves been among 
the most fortunate, I pray you to think of your boys and girls and place no 
obstacles in their pathway to the realization of every lofty and honorable am- 
bition which they may have. (Great applause.) I pray God that the burdens 
of class may never be imposed upon American manhood (applause) and Ameri- 
can womanhood. (Renewed applause). Now, my fellow citizens, thanking you 
most heartily for this call, and for the generous message delivered to me, in 
your behalf , by your spokesman, it will give me pleasure to meet and greet 
each of you personally." (Great cheering.) 

STEEL WORKERS OF PITTSBURG. 

The employes of the American Iron and Steel Works, owned by Jones & 
Latjghlix, and located at Ormsburg, Pittsburg, came to Canton en masse. Sat- 
urday morning, September 26th. This famous plant gives employment to five 
thousand men and every department was represented. There were fully four 
thousand of the men in line, and it required four sections of eleven coaches 
each, or forty-four cars in all, to accommodate them with transportation. 
The delegation left Pittsburg at 8 o'clock, Saturday morning, and the first 
section arrived in Canton at 10:45 o'clock. They came, as one of their members 
put it, "to see the next President of the United States, and to hear him talk." 
There has never been a crowd of visitors to Canton who were more enthusiastic 
McKinley men. Hardly had they placed their feet on Canton soil until they 

274 



began to cheer for their favorite candidate and it was kept up by each section 
thatpnlledin at intei'\'als of five minutes, and joined the others waiting on 
South street. Each train had streamers and banners on the different coaches 
bearing the inscription "American Iron and Steel Works, Pittsburg, Pa." The 
delegates also wore white badges with the name of the plant thereon. They 
had four bands along, the American, the Select Knights, the Keystone drum 
•corps, and the Germania Band. The contingent was headed by AVilliam Al- 
BRIGHT, Chief Marshal, and Charles Shively, Superintendent of the mills. The 
•departments represented included the iron and steel works and the bridge 
works. They were escorted to the McKuiley residence by the Canton Troop. 
Tlie banners were many and unique and included such epigrams for sound money 
and protection as "The true meaning of 16 to 1 is sixteen men out of work 
to one with a job," and "We are gold bugs, but not Immbugs." The delegation 
was organized exclusively by the men, not a member of the firm came along, 
and the party was bitter in its denunciation of the allegation that the steel 
workers were obliged to come to hold their jobs. When the crowd assembled 
on the McKinley lawn it was swelled by hundreds of Cantonians and many 
members of other delegations and e-xtended far into the street and adjoining 
yards. There were thousands of tin horns in the hands of the workingmen and 
tlieir shrill blasts and the enthusiastic cheers made a mighty din that could 
easily be heard a mile away. The ^olian quartet of Canton sang while the 
visitors' committee waited on Major McKinley and their campaign glees were 
applauded to the echo. An appropriate introduction was made by C. C. Briggs, 
a laborer in tlie mills, who spoke earnestly for protection, sound money and 
McKinley and Hobakt. 



Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : I am highly honored by tliis call from the working, 
men of the great Jones-Laughlin establisnment of the city of Pittsburg. 
(Great applause.) I bid you warm and hearty welcome to my home. (Re- 
newed applause.) You are present in such vast numbers this morning because 
in a few weeks you will be called upon to give expression to your individual 
opinions upon public questions at the polls. You are here because you are 
deeply and personally interested in the right settlement of those questions. 
(Applause and cries of 'And you for President.') Mr. Lincoln once said that 
the question of the tariff was a question of JS^ational housekeeping; that we 
must have a tariff which would supply the meal tub of the Government and 
not interfere with the meal tub of the people. The meal tub of the Govern- 
ment has been very low for the last three years and a half (cries of 'That's 
right') and the meal tub of the people has also been materially lowered. (Ap- 
plause and renewed cries of 'That's right,' and 'Nearly Empty.') Now wliat we 
want in this country, whether we be Democrats or Republicans, is such a tariff 
policy that will secure to the Federal Treasury ample revenue to run the Gov- 
ernment and protect American workingmen from the competition of the cheap- 
er labor of other lands. (Great cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') 
There is no man in this audience, I care not what may have been his place of 
birth, I do not care what his past party affiliations, who does not know that this 
country has enjoyed throughout its history the highest and largest prosperity 
when we were living under an American protective tariff system. (Great ap- 
plause and cries of 'Right you are.') There never was such great prosi)erity in 
..the history of this country as there was from 1880 to 1892, (cries of 'That's so') 

275 



and we had then a protective tatiff which defended American wages and Amer- 
ican markets from foreign competition, and we had at the same time a mone- 
tary system which gave to this country the best money Ivnovra to the world. 
(Great applause.) I am proud of the State of Pennsylvania because that glori- 
ous State has always led in this great doctrine of a protective tariff for the 
American people. (Applause and a voice 'You will find out what we will do in 
November, Major.') I have seen it somewhere stated that in 1884, the value of 
buildings alone erected in the city of Pittsburg, was $3,261,000. The next year 
the buildings erected fell in value to $2,881,000, and in 1886 amounted to $2,- 
282,0(X). The value of buildings put up in 1889— that was after the Presidential 
election of 1888— was $6,845,620. (Applause.) This is the high-water mark 
for buildings in the city of Pittsburg. This was when the protective tariff 
system was in full force, and I submit to you that we must all want, irrespec- 
tive of party, to again produce similar conditions in this country. We all 
know that the building trades are practically at a stand still . (Cries of 'That's- 
so.') We must get back to that plane of prosperity from which we ran away 
in 1892. My fellow citizens, I make no personal appeal to you. I make no- 
appeal for party's sake in this contest. This is a Government of the people. 
Every man has an equal right with every other man, but I appeal to you in ihe 
interest of your own work, in the interest of your own wages, in the interest of 
yuur own families and households, to cast jour vote for that party and for 
the principles which will best subserve those great interests. (Tremendous, 
applause and cries of 'We will.') Not only do we want a protective policy in 
the United States, but we want sound money. (Great cheering and crie? of 
'That's the stuff.') When labor is paid, itmust insibt upon beingpaid in dollErs 
worth one hundred cents each every day and everywhere. (Applause and 
cries of 'Good, good.') Labor loses more by a depreciated currency than any 
other part of our population. (Cries of 'That's right.') The men who have 
money keep their fingers upon the financial pulse. They know what is the best 
and what is the poorest money and ihey always pay out the poorest that will 
pass current. The history of mankind proves that when we have poor mov.ej 
that poor money lodges in the hands of the poor men of the country r.nd when- 
the crash comes they suffer the loss. (Applause and cries of 'That's right ') 
And now, my fellow citizens, as delegations are coming constantly to-day, and. 
there are many of them, you must be content with this short and broken 
speech, I appreciate your call more than I can find words to tell you, coming- 
as you do from one of the oldest manufacturing establishments in the United 
States, now nearly fifty years old. And the record of that institution would 
show, ii it were written, that you have enjoyed as workingmen, and they 
have enjoyed as employers, the highest prosperity only when we have had &■ 
judicious protective tariff and good sound dollars." (Great cheering.) 

TURTLE CREEK, /ETNA AND SHARPSBURQ. 

The handshaking with the Joxes & Laughlin people was just well started 
when the Turtle Creek (Pennsylvania) Republican Club appeared upon the scene. 
Before Major McKixley could greet them two more delegations were on hand, 
made up of people from along the line of the Pittsburg and Western Eailroad, 
particularly from .Etna and Sharpsburg, and two hundred and fifty employes of 
the Crescent Steel Company, of Pittsburg. The first introductory address was 
made by Mine Superintendent Thomas B. DeArmitt on behalf of the Turtle 
Creek McKinley and Hobart club. E. J. Sault introduced the Crescent Steel 

276 



Company and John Williams the employes of Sprang, Ciialfaxt & Co., of 
^tna while the employes of the Pittsburg Locomotive AVorks were presented by 
Capt. Chalfant. The special train bringing the McKinley and Hobart Clubof Tur- 
tle Creek, and the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Company, had pulled into 
the Fort Wayne depot at 2:15 o'clock. The delegation was composed of miners 
and business men and numbered about six hundred persons. Thomas B. 
DeArmitt, President of the McKinley Club, had charge. The Club had a large 
and handsome pictures of McKinley and Hobart, and each member wore a neat 
badge. They had the Turtle Creek Band with them, and were a representative 
body of workingmen. ^tna, Pennsylvania, sent more than one thousand 
people, who came in two sections over the Cleveland, Terminal and Valley 
Eailroad, at noon. The delegation was headed by the Thomas Ford Republican 
€lnb consisting of a military company in white and blue duck suits, carrying 
wooden guns with sprigs of golden rod in the muzzles. The Knights of Pythias 
Band, of Pittsburg, furnished good music for the march up town. There were 
clubs of employes from the shops of Spang, Chalfant & Co., and the Spang 
Steel and Iron Co. The 12:15 o'clock special Ft. Wayne train also brought 
five passenger cars filled with employes of the Crescent Steel Works, of Pitts- 
burg, which is located in the suburb known as Orange, and owned by Miller, 
Metcalf & Parker. They had about three hundred persons in the parade, and 
all wore the customary badge designating the Company and the Club. E. J. Satlt 
acted as Ca'ptain and had charge of the steel workers. They were headed by 
the Eighteenth Ward Band, of Pittsburg, and marched to the Major's residence 
with the Turtle Creek contingent. At 12:30 a train of six coaches with four 
hundred and eighty people came in over the Cleveland Terminal and Valley 
Railroad from the Pittsburg Locomotive Works. They were led by the 
Knights of the Golden Eagle Band of Allegheny, and were escorted at once to 
the McKinley home by the Canton Troop. Major McKinley was given a most 
remarkable ovation when he rose to speak to these several delegations and it 
was fully five minutes before his voice could at all be heard. 



Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens op Pennsylvania: You seem to be all here to-day 
(laughter and applause) those who are not in this audience were in a previous 
one, and those are not here now, or were not then, are to be here later in the 
day. (Loud laughter and applause.) I bid you all warm and hearty welcome. 
I am glad to meet the miners, the steel workers, and the representatives of the 
locomotive machine works (applause) of the Spang-Clialfant Company and the 
Oresent Steel Works (applause) and all the rest of you who have honored me 
with your presence to-day (here an employe of the Bridge Works yelled out, 
'Don't forget the Bridge Works,' amid laughter and applause) — and the Bridge 
Works. (Renewed applause.) I am very proud of the State of Pennsylvania, 
pi'oud of her workshops, of her splendid workingmen, of her farms, her mines, 
and her Republican majorities. (Cries of 'Hurrah for the next President.') 
I have known Pennsylvania people for many, many years, and I have known the 
workingmen of Pennsylvania also for a long time. I remember the first Con- 
gress in which I served to have received a large delegation of workingmen and 
miners from the State of Pennsylvania who came to Washington to protest 
against the passage of what was known as the Wood tariff bill. I remember to 
have met representatives of labor from your State to protest against the passage 

27'^ 



of what was known as the Morrison horizontal tariff bill; and later I met 
men from the same or similar industries protesting against the passage 
of what was known as the .Alills bill. Happily we were able to defeat every 
one of those bills (applause) because we believed they were opposed to 
the best interests of American labor and American development. (Applause.) 
We were not able to defeat the Wilson tariff bill, and you have been suffering 
ever since as a result thereof. (Cries of 'Tliat's what we have.' ) Is ow, I aon't 
care what may be your occupation, you are not prosperous unless tliere is a 
demand for your labor. Unless somebody wants what you have you will not 
be well paid. (Cries of 'That's right' and applause.) Unless somebody wants 
coal no coal will be mined, and if no coal is mined no miners will be employed. 
(Cries of 'That's good, that's true.") And the more coal that is demanded the 
more miners will have work and wages ; and the more happiness will be in the 
miner's homes. (Applause and cries of 'Good.' ) The more steel, and iron , and 
locomotives, and (turning to that part of the delegation composed of bridge 
workers) bridges you make (laughter »nd applause) the more coal you want. 
Isn't that so ? (Cries of 'That's right.') But you don't want and will not 
want coal unless somebody wants your steel and your iron and your locomo- 
tives (looking at the bridge workers) and your bridges. (Applause and laugh- 
ter.) We want the least of all those things when we are the least prosperous ; 
and we are the least prosperous when we are under a free trade policy and the 
business confidence of the country is destroyed. (Cries of 'That's true and 
right you are.') That's what's the matter with us now. (A voice, 'It won't be 
long,' laughter and applause.) It has been too long already, my fellow citizens. 
What we want now is a restoration of that confidence, (cries of 'We will get it, 
too') and the way to restore confidence is to retire the party and reject the 
principles that destroyed it. (A voice, 'Elect McKinley' and tremendous ap- 
plause.) Now, my fellow citizens, we not only want good work and good wages 
but we want good money. (Loud cheering. ) The miner who is here this morn- 
ing can not sell a ton of coal that he has mined, under weight, and he does not 
propose to receive a dollar, or dollars in payment, for that ton of coal of under 
value. (Cries of 'That's true.') Do you get my idea ? (Cries of 'You bet we 
do.') And so when the workingman, no matter in what business he may be 
employed, works his full day's work, he wants to receive in return one hundred 
cent dollars that are not depreciated and never will be depreciated. (Tre- 
mendous cheering.) I tliank you for this call. I am pleased with the kind, 
generous and gracious messages brought to me by your spokesmen, whom you 
did not hear, but I did, and as other delegations are waiting below the hill, I 
must thank you and say good bye." (Loud and continuous cheering.) 

DUQUE5NE STEEL WORKERS. 

The emidoyes of the Carnegie mills at Duquesne arrived in two sections- 
about 12 o'clock via the Ft. Wayne Railroad. There were nearly one thousand 
voters in the party and each delegate wore a badge of white ribbon inscribed 
with the name of the mill. They were accompanied by the Sheridan Sabre 
Band, of Wilkinsburg, und the Carnegie Band, of Duquesne. The men were 
all enthusiastic for Republican principles and anxious to greet their standard 
beai-er. C. G. Guygart, chief clerk of the mill, had charge of the party, while 
R. R. Richardson, George W. Bryan, John McDonough and Levi Upton 
assisted in looking after the details of the trip. The banners carried were ag- 

27'" 



propriate and varied. Canton Troop and llie Escort Club headed the procession 
to Major McKinley's residence. Tlie first delegation to come, over the Cleve- 
land, Canton and Southern, arrived at 1:35 and consisted of fourteen 
coaches, containing the Allegheny County contingent. This was com- 
posed of the Essenboro and McKee's Rocks McKinley and Hobart i:iepub- 
lican Clubs, the Young Men's Republican Club and Railroad Men's Club. 
The Pittsburg and Lake Erie Band, composed almost entirely of railroad em- 
ployes, headed that party ; and the Coraopolis Band the McKinley and Hobart 
Club and the Consolidated Lamp and Glass Works. For the McKee'g Rocks 
and Essenboro people, Mr. T. J. Gillespie, Secretary and Treasurer of 
the Lockhart Iron AVorks, acted as spokesman, and Mr. "William Dithrick 
presented the compliments of the others to Major McKinley. The uniforms 
of all these delegations were bright and attractive. They were met at the 
Cleveland, Canton and Southern depot by the Canton Troop and the Canton 
Sound Money Club, and escorted to the McKinley residence and cheered and 
were cheered all along the line. While Major McKinley took a few minutes 
for lunch, the fourth crowd of the day massed around the front porch. The 
lawn at no time during the campaign has been more densely packed. Several 
times'stampedes were made for the porch, already filled beyond its capacity, and 
only with great difficulty was the crowd kept from taking possession of the 
interior of the house. The crowd was noisy and enthusiastic in the highest 
degree. It included employes of the Pittsburg, Lake Erie and Western Rail- 
road; of the Lockhart Iron & Steel Company; of the Anderson Du Puy Com- 
pany ; of the Schultz Bridge and Iron Company, and business men and other 
citizens of Essenboro and McKee's Rocks. They were introduced by T. J. 
Gillespie. The crowd also included Duquesne and Carnegie steel workers, 
introduced by R. R. Richardson; Baltimore and Ohio Railroad employes from 
Newark and Central Ohio, introduced by Dennis Keakney ; and employes of the 
Coraopolis Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company, introduced by W, J, Dith- 
rick, Major McKinley responded to all in one address, Mr. W. J. Dithrick, 
for the Coraopolis glass workers said: "We are engaged in the manufacture of 
glass and believe in the principles of the Republican Party and also believe that 
you are the endorser of these principles and therefore we come here to pay 
respects to you as the successor of Grover Cleveland. As a token of our esteem 
I present to you this cane made by the hands of American workingmen knowing 
full well that by your election they will have in you an ideal American Presi- 
dent." At 11 :40 delegations began coming in over the Cleveland Terminal and 
Valley Railroad. The first train brought six coaches with four hundred 
employes of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Newark. The Gratot Band, 
of Newark, headed the procession, and T. M. Jones, one of the shopmen who 
towers up into the atmosphere seven full feet, and was dressed to represent 
Uncle Sam, acted as drum major. The delegation awaited the arrival of the 
next section before leaving the depot. Mr. Dennis Kearney presented their 
compliments to Major McKinley, as follows: "The people regardles? .^f party 
are going to elect McKinley this year and when that is accomplislie.. there 
will be no 'cross of gold, no crown of thorns,' no fifty-three cent dollar. 
Another thing I want to tell you, we are not coerced to come to your home. 
Major. They say we're dragged about with a collar around our necks, but 
we're not. We had no free tickets. We paid our fare and next March when 
you are in Washington we'll charter a train and hire a band and blow our 
horns all the way to Washington and greet you there." (Great applause.) T. 

279 



J. Gillespie, for the McKee's Rocks and Essenboro delegates, said: "Guid. 
ed by this lamp, after four years experience of Democratic incompetency 
a.id misrule, we are warned not to again entrust power to the same party even 
though it may try to disguise itself, and by the new party shibboleth of free 
silver endeavor to make us forget its colossal blunder of free trade," 

Major flcKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: It gives me pleasure to welcome to my home the 
representatives of the Duquesne steel works, of the glass factories and of all 
the other industries that are before me here to-day. I can not but be impress- 
ed that there is presented to the American people this year a crisis of unusual 
importance that should bring to my home delegation after delegation from near 
and distant States to testify their devotion to the cause which for the moment 
I represent. (Applause.) I do not think there has ever been a time in our 
history when the people themselves so w^ell and thoroughly understood the 
political issues as they understand them this year. (Applause.) What we 
want, all of us, is Patriotism, Peace, Protection and Prosperity. (Tremendous 
cheering.) You express, gentlemen, the true heartiness of the great States 
you represent, in both your acts and your gracious words, and I assure you that 
no one could more highly appreciate them than I do. (Applause.) These daily 
—and it seems to me almost hourly— calls of large and earnest bodies of Amer- 
ican citizens, made at sucl^ expense and great sacrifice of time and with so 
much fatigue and inconvenience, touch me most deeply, but I would not have 
you think nor have any one think, for an instant, that I consider them personal 
tributes or calls of mere curiosity and recreation. Far from anything of the 
kind, they possess the deep significance of indicating that the American people 
are everywhere aroused and intensely interested in the pending campaign. 
(Applause.) You know people used to say that Ohio was always in a state of 
perpetual campaigning — Canton is in that state just now — (boisterous laughter 
and applause) and that the Fall campaign was no sooner off than the Spring 
campaign was on, and so it went the whole year round. Well, we are doing 
better now, for Ohio has done away with one of her elections. The old State 
elections in October, which used to point the way for the country to follow, have 
been permanently abandoned. We have left that task to Oregon, Vermont and 
Maine. (Prolonged cheering.) And how well they have held up the cause of 
the country this year ! Oregon voted in June and it gave the Republican ticket 
more than 13,000 plurality, a Republican gain as contrasted w^ith the corre- 
sponding election of 1892, of 11,263 and an increase in the Republican vote of 
nearly 9,000. (Applause.) Yet there are some people who pretend to think 
that the gallant Republicans of that splendid State are going to let it declare 
for those twin delusions and evils — free trade and free silver — next November. 
(Cries of 'No, no.') I do not believe it; but on the contrary I believe that 
Oi'egon will continue in the place where she naturally belongs, and deserves to 
belong, in the Republican column. (Applause.) Vermont voted on September 
1st. Her Republican vote for Governor in 1892 was 88,918; in 1896, 53,505, a 
gain of 14,587. while the Republican plurality this year was the greatest in the 
history of the State being 39,053 as against a little more than 19,000 four 
years ago. Maine, that glorious commonwealth of Hamlin, Blaine and Reed — 
(applause) — ]Maine held her election on the 14th of September, and gave the Re- 
publican candidate for Governor 82,749 votes as against 67,000 given the Repub- 
lican candidate for that office in 1892 an increase of 15,000 in the Republican 

280 



-vote, while the Republican plurality this year was nearly four times as great 
as then— 48,500 in 1896, and 12,500 in 1892, a Republican gain in that State of 
35,930 votes. The combined vote of the three States shows Republican plurali- 
ties of 101,357, or 67,000 larger than they gave at corresponding elections in 1892. 
There was an increase in the Republican vote of 38,080, wliile the Democratic 
vote decreased 28,948, indicating just what is happening all over the country, 
that thousands of honest money Democrats — law preserving, patriotic Demo- 
crats, will not follow the false leaders of the Chicago Convention. (Tremen- 
dous applause.) In those States they eitlier did not vote or else they voted the 
Republican ticket. My fellow citizens, these returns are full of clieer and en- 
couragment. Not merely to us as Republicans, but as honest citizens, earnestly 
seeking the good of our country, and furnish to all of the States worthy 
examples to emulate, and, if possible, to surpass. I thank you for the compli- 
ment and honor of this call. I thank those who have presented me tokens of 
this visit, which I shall ever remember, because it seems to me that the 
industrial' portion of our population stands solidly by a protective tariff, by 
honest money, by law and order, and by the courts of the country. I thank 
you all." (Immense and long continued cheering.) 

THE JOHN DALZELL CLUB. 

The John Dalzell Republican Club and other citizens of Wilmerding, Penn- 
sylvania, arrived at the Fort "Wayne station at one o'clock, Saturday afternoon, 
September 26th. Their special train was of thirteen coaches with streamers 
floating from all of them with the name of tiie club emblazoned thereon. 
About nine hundred people were in the delegation. The DalzeL Club had about 
two hundred men in line, all having silk hats, carrying gold-colored umbrellas, 
and wearing tlie regular club badge, with a picture of McKinley and a declara- 
tion for Sound Money and No Repudiation inscribed thereon. Theotliers inline 
wore white badges with the name of the city designated. The crowd was headed 
by the Wilmerding Cornet Band, and Captain Robert Sisco, of the Dalzell Club, 
commanded the delegation in parade. The Fort "VYayne Escort Committee, 
with the Canton Troop, took the visitors in hand, and they were soon on the 
historic lawn at Major McKinley's, where they were introduced by Mr. James J. 
.Jacobs, of Pittsburg. 

najorflcKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Jacobs axd My Fellow-Citizens: lam sure you will not expect from 
■me a speech of any length when you recall that I have been speaking to great 
throngs of people siSnce early this morning. I am especially glad to meet the 
John Dalzell Club, which honors me with its presence to-day. You bear an 
honored name. It was my privilege to serve for several years in the National 
House of Representatives with your distinguished Representative, Mr. Dalzell; 
<great applause) and I am glad that you have taken his name, for no more 
lionored or more worthy Representative sits in the National House. (Applause.) 
I a:n glad to note from your spokesman the splendid advancement you have 
TOiide in your town during the past six years. I am glad to note in this audience 
an.n from that famous "VVestinghouse Company, which is known the world over. 
•(A_iplause.) I am glad to find you this year interested in National politics 
a:ul to note that you, with the rest of the people of the country, are making 
politics in 1896 a business. You have discovered during the last four 

281 



years that politics is business, and if you want good business you must h 
good politics. (Great applause and cries of *' That's right.") I observe in this 
audience many young men. There never was such a cause to fight for since the 
days of the war as that which appeals to the young men and the old men of the 
country to-day, a cause which invokes patriotism, National honor, public faith, 
law and order, all of which we value in a government of free people, such as we 
are. (Applause.) I am glad to note, as your spokesman has well said, that you 
liave carefully considered all the pending questions and that it is yourdeter- 
mination to give your ballots next November to the great Republican Party. 
(Applause and cries of MVe surely will.') Gentlemen, I thank you for your 
call, and bid you all good afternoon." (Great cheering and cries of "Hurrah 
for McKixLEY.") 

PIQUA AND MIAfll COUNTY. 

The delegation from Miami County, Ohio, including the cities of Piqua and 
Troy, arrived in Canton at 1 :30 o'clock via the Fort Wayne raili'oad. The con- 
tingent came on a special train, and owing to the fact that the trip first con- 
templated had been postponed by the regular club organizations but a small 
crowd came There were just seventy-one men and perhaps half as many 
ladies in the procession. It was headed by the Hon. T. B. Kyle, Mayor of 
Piqua. Tlie Young Men's Sound Money Club, of Canton, in uniforms of white 
duck pants and white umbrellas, acted as escorts to the McKinley home. 
Hon. Thomas B. Kyle spoke briefly, saying: "We have in ourmidst 3,000 men 
out of employment by reason of the AVilson bill. We come to you with full 
confidence as the exponent of the principles which will restore our prosperity." 
(Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen: I appreciate this call from my fellow citizens of 
Miami County, Ohio. I thank you for traveling this long distance to give me 
personal assurances of your devotion to the Republican Party, and of your pur- 
pose to aid it with your votes in giving us a grand victory this year. (Ap- 
plause.) I recall many visits I have made to your county, I recall the warmth 
of welcome which I have always received and the splendid support you have 
always given tlie Republican ticket when I was your candidate. (Great ap- 
plause.) I recall as I stand before you to-day, that it was in the city of Piqua 
that an industry was established in 1891 for the manufacture of tin. I recollect 
to have been in that factory and dipped one of the first pieces of tin that was 
made there. You remember that at the time they said we couldn't make tin 
plate (laughter) but we do make it now, as everybody admits. There is noth- 
ing the people in this country propose to do that they can not do, and one of the 
things they propose to do this year is to restore the policy of a protective tariff and 
continue the policy of sound money. (Great applause.) We want this country 
protected. (Applause and cries of 'Good.') We want our industries protected 
and judicious laws enacted to protect them. They wei'e protected for more 
than thirty years under Republican rule and during those thirty we had unex- 
ampled prosperity. Our currency was always sound, and each dollar worth 
one hundred cents and good in every mart and market place in the world. This 
is the policy of the Republican Party in 1896. (Applause.) I am glad to meet 
and greet you here to-day for I know that the heart of your grand old county 
still warms to Republican principles." (Great cheering.) 

282 



BUFFALO REAL ESTATE MEN. 

At 1 :45 o'clock the Buffalo, New York, delegation arrived over the Cleve- 
land, Canton and Southern Railroad. Eight coaches contained the Real Estate 
Exchange people to the number of about six hundred. It was one of the finest 
delegations of the day, and contained many of the most prominent citizens and 
officials of the New York lake metropolis. Among them were the spokesman of 
the delegation, Harvey S. Hill, President of the Real Estate Exchange of 
Buffalo Albert Dueber, son of Johx C. Dceber, of Canton, Aldermen Fraxk- 
Lix, Brodish, Veeling, DrRR, ex-Alderman McMasters, and "William Jrno, 
Seci-etary of the Commercial Travelers' Association, ex-Sheriff Gilbert, and 
many others. The delegation was met by the Dueber-Hampden McKinley and 
Hobart Club of three hundred men and the First AVard Republican Drum 
Corps. The train on which the delegation came bore a number of streamers 
bearing the mottoes: "Buffalo Real Estate men— ^McKinley and Prosperity," 
"Buffalo for McKinley and Prosperity." Mr. Harvey S. Hill spoke for the 
representative business men of Buffalo, who came as the Real Estate Men's 
McKinley and Hobart Club. He said : 

"Major McKinley: This delegation is not a political club. It is a spon- 
taneous aggi-egation of business men, irrespectivje of party, for with us are some 
of the most prominent Democrats of the city of Buffalo, who have felt it tl-.eir 
duty to come forward in this crisis in the Nation, and, discarding party lines, 
vote to uphold the Nation's honor. The city of Buffalo is peculiarly interested 
in this question at this time. We have a progressive city, a growing city, a 
city of great possibilities with a grand future before us ; we are about to inaugu- 
rate the use of the mighty power of the giant cataract of Niagara Falls, which, 
harnessed to electric motors, is to furnish power to drive every wheel in e\'Tery 
factory in our great city. The eyes of the whole world are upon us, watching 
this great event which has passed the experimental stage and is a reality, and 
next year, when we celebrate in our city with a great electrial exhibition the 
introduction of this power in our factories, we want the hand of President 
McKixley to push the button that will start the wheels in motion. We expect, 
with the advent of this power, that our city will gi-ow even faster than in tlie 
past and soon become the Manchester of America. We want no dangerous 
trifling with the Nation's credit ; no hair-brained experiments in financial legis- 
lation to interrupt our strides to greatness." (Great applause.) 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : I count it a great honor to have present at my home 
to-day the teal estate men of the city of Buffalo. (Applause.) I thank you for 
your coming and bid you hearty welcome. I am glad to know that there are 
numbered among this assemblage men of all political parties, men who have 
heretofore not voted the Republican ticket, and who this year believe that the 
Republican Party more than any other party stands for National honor and 
the credit of the country. (Applause.) I thank all such for their support to 
the piirty which this year represents not merely Republican principles as such, 
but in the truest sense, independent of all party ties, the National honor and 
prosperity. (Applause and Cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') There is nothing more vital 
to a government like ours than the sanctity of law. (Great applause.) It must 
bo over all, above all, and observed by all. (Great cheering and cries of 'Good,' 
'Good.' Acquiesence in the public laws which the people themselves have 

283 



made and ordained is the highest obligation of citizenship and the chief source 
of safety to the Republic. (Applause.) The courts which interpret and execute 
the law must be preserved on that exalted plane of purity and incorruptibility 
which has [so signally characterized the American judiciary. (Great cheering 
and cries of 'Right.') These courts must be upheld for the safety and defense 
of all citizens. (Applause.) When the laws, and those whose constitutional duty 
it is to execute them, are assailed, the Government itself is assailed. If there 
are those who would break down law and disturb the peace and good order of 
society, then those who value those safeguards as essential to our liberty must 
sacredly guard and defend them by their ballots. (Great applause.) This they 
will do with the same earnest patriotism that they have always displayed in 
every great emergency in the life of the Nation. To strike at the credit of the 
country is to deal a blow at its prosperity. (Applause and cries of 'Right,' 
'Right.) It destroys confidence, and when that is gone business stops and the 
currents of trade are dried up. Confidence, in a measure, and a very great 
measure, is the capital of the world. Destroy confidence and you invite ruin 
to every enterprise in the land. (Applause and cries of 'Correct.') Absolute 
integrity of payment in all transactions, public and private, lies at the founda- 
tion of confidence and when confidence is once firmly established there is 
scarcely any limit to capital. (Cries of 'That's right,' 'Good,' 'Good.') This is 
the universal experience of both Crovernment and individual. A tainted credit 
is a constant embai'rassmentto Government and citizen, and when once it fastens 
upon eitlier, it is hard for them to recover. A limping credit attracts no capital 
and inspires no confidence. (Apj)lause.) Poor credit is always expensive; it 
puts unnecessary burdens upon possessors. Tliey are required to pay higher 
rates of interest for the use of money and higher prices for what they buy. If 
they get credit at all they must pay dearly for it, because of the fear that they 
will not return what they have borrowed. (Cries of 'Right.') This ci*edit and 
confidence can not be restored by a proposition to debase the currency of the 
country and repudiate public and private debt. (Great applause.) And, my 
fellow citizens, without detaining you a single moment, after thanking you for 
the courtesy and kindness of this call, I want to say that the American people 
this year do not mean to Mexicanize either their money or their labor. (Tre- 
mendous cheering and cries of 'Right.') I bid you good afternoon." (Great 
applause.) 

PITTSBURG RETAILERS. 

The employes of Joseph Horne & Co.'s large retail dry goods house of 
Pittsburg, reached Canton in a special train on tlie Fort Wayne road, Saturday 
afternoon, September 26th. There were some one hundred and fifty employes in 
line, accompanied by about a hundred othercitizens of Pittsburg. The party was 
accompanied by a drum corps. Each delegate wore a gold ribbon, on which 
was inscribed " 16 to 1, Nit ! " They were escorted to their destination by the 
Young Men's Sound Money Club and Thayer's Band. Arriving at the McKinley 
residence, Mr. A. H. Buechfield introduced tlie party in the following unique 
and excellent manner. He said: "Major McKinley, we are the employes of 
Joseph HoRNE & Co., of Pittsburg. Boys, this is Major MoKinley. Hip! Hip! 
Hurrah ! " (Immense cheering.) 

riajor flcKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens from the Great House of Joseph Horne & Co., 
Pittsburg: It affords me pleasure to have you here at my home, and to know 

284 



the cause which. I have the honor for the iiiouient to represent has your sup- 
port and confidence. ''Applause and cries of 'It has.') The books of the 
merchant, quite as accurately as anything else, register the prosperity of the 
country. Nobody feels business depression and prostration quicker than the 
merchant, and nobody feels prosperity and good times sooner. You, gentle- 
tlemen, old and young, who stand about me here to-day, know the difference 
between the conditions you now have, and have had for two or three years past, 
and the condition which you had prior to 1893. (Cries of Yes, we do.') I can not 
tell you anything about that, and no city in the Union has felt more than the 
city of Pittsburg the influence of constantly employed workingmen in con- 
stantly running workshops. "Whenever your workshops in the city of Pittsburg 
and its environs have been busy, you have been busy in your store, and when 
they have been idle, you have been idle, too. (Applause and cries of ' Tluit's 
right.') It is proposed now that we sliall not only have continued, our present 
condition which is bad enough, but tliat we shall have it aggravated by the 
determination of certain people to put us upon a silver basis, and depreciate 
and degrade the currency of the country. You do not have in your stores now 
what some of the older men will remember was an indispensable thing before 
the war. AYhen money is paid over your counter to-day, you know there is no 
depreciation in it, whether it is National bank notes, or Treasury notes, gold or 
silver certificates, or gold, or silver itself, or greenbacks. You know that evex-y 
dollar you receive is just as good as gold, and you do not have to consult eiliier 
the Bank Note Detector, or the daily newspapers, to discover wliether that 
money is good or not. You know it is good. (Applause and cries of 'That's 
true. ) It is proposed now to enter upon the experiment of the free coinage of 
silver, which would give us at the present price of silver fifty-two cent dollars, 
and hereafter if that policy should be inaugurated, you would have to consult 
the daily market reports in the newspapers to know what a silver dollar was 
worth before you took it. (Great cheering and cries of ' That's right.') My 
fellow citizens, we neither want unrestrained nor unrestricted competition 
from Europe, nor do we propose to have the money of Mexico or China to 
answer our purposes in this splendid country. (Great applause and cries of 
' Hurrah for McKiNLEY.') Ibid you all good afternoon." (Great applause.) 



WHEELING AND LAKE ERIE. 

Mr. J. F. TowNSEND spoke for the Wheeling and Lake Erie Kailway men 
who came in great numbers to Canton on the afternoon of September 26th, 
to pay tlieir respects to Major McKiNLEY. He said: "We are railroad men 
from Ohio and West Virginia and come to honor to see and to cheer William 
McKiNLEY. (Applause.) My fellow men in the railroad service have given me 
a chance to make a speech, but I do not think there is anything I can say that 
will satisfy them before they hear tlie voice of the great American. Our pres- 
ence here testifies stronger than anything else the hearty support that we will 
give you and your cause. We are not on an excursion to return home and dis- 
band, but we are formed into permanent organizations and will go back and 
tell our companions and co-workers that we have heard and seen you. Permit 
me to introduce the Railroad Sound Money Club of Massillon, Ohio, and the 
Railroad Employes Gold Club, of AYheeling, and many railroad men from other 
towns south of Mason and Dixon's line." (Applause.) 

285 



riajor McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. TowNSEND AND My Fellow Citizens t On account of the number 
of speeches I have made to-day and the great number of people I have address- 
ed, iur I have spoken a number of times and to thousands of people of many dif- 
fei-ent occupations — but all alike interested in the honor, well-being and pros- 
perity of tiie country — I ask your consideration if I do not speak at great 
length now. (Applause.) I am glad to meet the men of the Wheeling and Lake 
Erie Railway, fellow citizens of Ohio and West Virginia. You want your 
money to be sound. (Applause.) You want every dollar you have to be as 
good as every dollar in the country. You want when you have worked for your 
railroad to be paid in money that is worth one hundred cents to the dollar. 
You do not want to be paid in a debased or depreciated currency. (Cries of 
'You are right,' 'we don't.') You want another thing for your advancement, 
you want the country to be prospei'ous. Railroads are prosperous only when 
the country is prosperous ; railroads are always in embarrassment when the 
business of the country is depressed. You will have nothing to haul unless 
somebody wants the products that somebody else makes along your line, and 
the more products you carry the steadier will be your employment and the 
better your wages. (Continuous ajiplause.) Yours is a most delicate and 
dangerous employment. I never step off a railroad train, after either a long or 
short journey, that I do not feel like making personal acknowledgment to 
every railroad employe for his care for the safety of the passengers. (Ap- 
plause.) I never step off a railroad train that I do not feel like going to the 
engineer and taking off my hat to him. (Applause and cries of 'Good.') I 
am glad to meet and greet you to-day. You have not come to do me honor 
personsilly, you have come to do honor to the cause for which, by the partiality 
of a great political party, I for the moment stand. You are interested in the 
success of the principles of this party because you believe that its prin- 
ciples carried into practical demonstration will be better for your employment, 
better for your familes, better for your railroads, better for your communities 
and better for the the entire country. (Prolonged cheering.) I make no 
appeal to you that is not based upon what I believe to be for the public good. 
I believe it is the mission of the Government of this country to take care of the 
industrial people of the country ; I believe it is the business of the country to 
make everything that can bejmade in the United States, which our pepple con- 
sume. (Applause and cries of 'Good.') I believe it is the business of the coun- 
try to protect every citizen in his employment from the cheap products made 
by the cheaper labor of other lands. (Cries of 'Good,' and 'That's the stuff.') 
I believe that the way to have prosperity in the United States is to encourage 
the American workshop and uphold American labor ; (Tremendous applause) 
and when you uphold American labor and sustain the American workshop you 
have given trade and traffic to these great railroad companies, the arteries of 
commerce, which in turn, give steady employment to the railway employes 
of the country. (Cries of 'That's right.') I thank you heartily for this call 
and bid you all good-bye." (Three rousing cheers were given for McKinley.) 

THE TIN MAKERS OF NEW KENSINGTON. 

The delegation froir New Kensington, Pennsylvania, arrived in Canton 
Saturday afternoon September 26th, at 3:30 o'clock, via the Pittsburg, Ft. 
Wayne and Chicago Railroad. There were nearly five hundred visitors from 
that city, which has thersecond largest tin plate output in the country, and they 

286 



were nearly all employes of these tin plate concerns, whose enthusiasm for 
McKiNLEY, protection and sound money knows no bounds. Included in the 
delegation was the McKinley and Hobart Club of tliree hundred members in 
uniform. They had white duck leggings, gold breasted blouses with name of 
organization inscribed, nobby caps, and each carried a torch. Headed by the 
Tarentum Band, and escorted by the Young Men's Republican Club, they pro- 
ceeded along the line of march to the home of Major McKinley. The uniform- 
ed club was under command of G. W. Youxgson, Captain, Joseph Timming and 
H. W. Ford. At the McKinley residence Mr. Edward Dixkelspeil said for the 
tin makers: "A few years ago, an unproductive farm occupied tliat portion of 
Westmoreland County which to-day is lined on either side of the Allegheny 
river, with smoke-stacks, fly-wheels and steam jets. The transformation is 
daily increasing Pennsylvania's and the Nation's wealth by affording employ- 
ment to thousands of wage earners in the manufacture of such commodities as 
were purchased in the past from England. Our section which recently had but 
a handful of people, to-day boasts of its hundreds and thousands of citizens 
whose houses are dotting every hill. "We are indebted for this to the principles 
of protection, for which you stand and for which you fight and have so valiantly 
fought in the past. It is due to the fostering care you have so persistently 
advocated for the growth of American industries, in tlie face of overwhelming 
odds, and great opposition wiiich few could have withstood, more than to any 
thing else, that this magical revolution has been wrought. The tribute paid you 
to-day by the mill workers of New Kensington is due to the realization that 
through your untii'ing efforts alone has our flourishing town and its interests 
(mainly that of tin plate) been created." (Applause.) 

riajor McKinSey's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: For the generous message of good will of your 
spokesman, I beg to make the most sincere and heartfelt acknowledgement. 
To be called by laboring men themselves 'the workingman's'friend,' is the 
highest honor for which I would strive. (Prolonged cheering.) To have been 
in any way connected with National legislation that has furnished employment 
to the hundreds and thousands of men who stand beside and around me, i-; 
worthy the best ambition of any man. I am glad to have it demonstrated here 
to-day that we can and do make tin plate in the United States. (Continuous 
applause. ) If your factory and other kindred factories are not as prosperous 
as they were two or three years ago, you know the reason why. If your wages 
have been reduced in the tin plate factories, you know quite as well as I can 
tell you the reason it is so ; for whenever there is a cut in the rates of tariff upon 
foreign imports, it is likely to be followed by a cut of rates in American wages. 
(Cries of 'That's right.') You have had that in your own experience , then 
my fellow citizens, I take it that you are all in favor of a protective tariff. 
(Cries of 'Yes, yes, that's what we are.') I take it you know which party 
stands for a protective tariff. (Cries of 'We do.') I take it you know which 
ticket represents that great American doctrine, and knowing it, I take it you 
know just what National ticket is best for you. Now what you want 
after that — after good work and good wages — is that you shall be paid in good 
dollars. You do not want your wages cut, and your money, too. (Laughter 
and applause. ) It is bad enough to suffer a reduction in your pay but it i an 
added aggravation to have to suffer a cut in the money in which you are paid. 
I take it that every man who stands before me to-day is not only in favor cf 

287 



l^ational prosperity, but he is in favor of National honor, and a National 
currency that will be as sound as the Republic and as unsullied as its honor 
has always been. (Tremendous applause.) There is no menace to labor like 
that of a depreciated and debased currency. What do you suppose you have 
in your savings banks in Pennsylvania? (A voice, 'Millions of dollars.') V. hy 
in the year 1895 the savings banks of the State of Pennsylvania held in trust 
for the 264,000 depositors, men and women, $68,500,000 of the earnings of labor. 
"Would you favor, can you favor, any policy which would decrease, which would 
inevitably destroy one half of the value of this great sum, the accumulations 
of your honest and prudent toil? (Cries of 'No, no.') There is to my miiul 
something singularly abhorrent in such a proposition, if it is right to inflict 
upon these people a policy which would depreciate by one half the value of 
those savings, it is right to take away their whole value ; and to such a depth 
of dishonor I know the American people will never scoop. (Tremendous 
applause.) We must not lose our moorings ; we must not be deluded by false 
doctrines or by false prophets. We must never by our ballot stigmatize ours 
as either a dishonest or a repudiating Nation. Steady work and good 
wages are the test of the Nation's prosperity, and the happiness of its citizens. 
Neither of them will come through free trade or free silver; for while both 
may benefit somebody else, neither of them can be,.er:t the American citizen. 
(Applause and cries of 'That's right.') I thank you most heartily for this call 
and in view of the many speeches I have already made, and some which I have 
yet to make, I know you will excuse me I will say to you— all of you— good- 
bye and may God bless you." (Prolonged cheering.) 

PEOPLE'S PATRIOTIC CLUB. 

A large crowd was at the Cleveland, Canton and South f>rn depot Saturday af- 
ternoon, September 26th, to meet the Cleveland women, their train arriving 
about four o'clock. The engine was gaily decked with banners and bunting, and 
on each of the dozen coaches were numerous flags. The delegation consisted 
of the People's Patriotic Club, the Ladies' Marching Club and band and the 
East End Marching Club, and was accompanied by the Association Trumpet and 
Drum Corps and the famous Avery Drill Corps, a finely drilled body of men, 
who won well-merited applause by their excellent maneuvers as they marched 
along the streets to the McKinley residence. The Ladies' Executive Commit- 
tee, under whose auspices the excursion was given, were: Mrs. J. W. Shepherd, 
President, Mrs. Elroy M. Avery, Vice President ; Mrs. Fuller, Mrs. Dean, Mrs. 
MooRE, Mrs. McCumber, Mrs. S. F. Wright, Mrs. TiLLiMC.iiAST,and Mrs. Mace ; 
also Major Gleason, who acted as spokesman ; J. W. Hencke, Secretary of tlie 
Tippecanoe Club ; G. H. Cowley, ex-President ; Hon. H. C. Mason, S. II Cruwl, 
J. C. Darn, W. D. Buss, and others. The delegation was met by the Canton 
Drum Corps and Citizens' Committee. The ladies elicited considerable applause 
as they marched during a shower to the ilcKinley residence, where the several 
delegations were introduced. Mayor McKisson acting as spokesman, by the fol- 
lowing gentlemen: Otto C. Snider, for theFirr.t Voters; Mr. W. II. Schwartz, 
for the Hungarian- Americans ; Mr. Joseph Carabelli, for the Italian-Ameri- 
cans ; Mr. Charles Eichter, for the Bohemian-Amxericans ; Hon. John P. Green, 
for the colored people; Captain E. H. Bohm, for the German- Americans, and 
Hon. Harry C Mason, for the native-born Americans. 



288 



Major McKinley's Response. 

" Mayor MoKisson and Ladies and Gentlemen: This is the fifteenth dele- 
gation I have received at my home to-day (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and a voice, 
'They have not all come yet. Major,') and I vrant to assure you that none have 
been more vpelcome or have given me greater encouragment than the delega- 
tion vphich stands before and around me now. (Applause.) It is a remarkable 
spectacle when the representatives of all races and nationalities, accompanied 
by the Mayor of their City, come to testify their devotion to the country and 
loyalty to its honor. (Great cheering.) It is remarkable, if not inspiring, to 
listen to praise of our flag arid institutions in tongues other than our own, 
and to expressions of love for the 'land of the free and the home of the brave.' 
(Great applause.) I can imagine no audience that better protests against the 
false and un-American doctrine of classes against the masses than this splendid 
audience. I welcome the first voters, the colored people, the Germans, the 
Bohemians, the Hungarians, the Italians, the American born and naturalized 
citizens, every one equal in privilege and opportunity beneath the American 
flag. (Vociferous cheering.) Every citizen in the United States has an equal 
interest in the conduct of the Government and its administrative and legisla- 
tive policy. I have no sympathy with those who would seek to create inequal- 
ities and promote antagonisms which are in conflict with the spirit of our insti- 
tutions. All responsibility of government rests with the people who have equal 
voice and interest and power in shaping its future policy. The ballot of the 
humblest citizen, thank God, is as powerful as that of the most exalted. (Cries 
of 'Good,' 'Good.') The vote of the poorest counts as much as the vote of the 
most opulent. There is no inequality under our Constitution and laws ; and 
those who seek to make distinctions are not the true friends either of the peo- 
ple or the counti-y. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') In voting every 
man is a free man, and every ballot should express the best opinion of the voter. 
He should consult both his intelligence and conscience before he deposits his 
ballot. It is a trust, therefore, of supreme importance which is conferred upon 
the American citizen, and carries with it gi"ave duties which affect not only the 
country but every home and fireside in the land. Our Government, more dis- 
tinctly than any other, rests upon the consent of the governed, and is controlled 
in its policies by the will of the majority. My fellow citizens, there have been 
few times in our history when the ballot was more important than now, or when 
it meant more to the country in its credit and welfare, its honor and prosperity. 
(Applause.) I have seen somewhere that 'suffrage' means, primarily, hough or 
pastern of a horse, so-called because it bends in and not over like the knee-joint. 
When a horse is lying down and wants to rise on its legs, it is this joint which is 
brought into action, and when a horse stands on his legs it is these ankle joints 
which support him. Metaphorically, says the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 
voters are the pastern joints of the country whereby it is supported. Whether 
this definition be true or not, it accurately describes the philosophy of sov- 
erignty. The country is just now lying down in a condition of prostration. The 
intelligent and well-directed use of suffrage can alone lift it up. Nothing else 
can do it. It has been borne down by a mistaken policy, and is threatened with 
further prostration arising from the menace of a debased currency. It wants 
to get up on its legs again— and we want it to do so. (Applause and cries of 
'That's what we do.') Suffrage must be brought into action to accomplish it. 
We must raise it up and the ballots of free men alone can do it. They can 
elevate it to its old and better standing and start it again on the pathway of 
progress and prosperity. They can preserve its untarnished credit, and lift 

289 



aloft the currency and honor of the country. I appeal to every citizen to use 
the ballot this year so as to conserve the National interest, elevate the National 
name and bring to every fireside and American heart, light, hope and cheer. 1 
thank you for this call and assurances of support. I thank you, ladies of the 
city of Cleveland, for having organized in the name of patriotism and for the 
love of American institutions, this splendid assemblage. (Applause.) We will 
never go 'm-ong so long as we are in charge of the women. (Laughter and ap- 
plause.) I once more thank you and bid you aD good afternoon." (Loud and 
continuous cheering. ) 



COLUriBIANA COUNTY CALLERS. 

An enthusiastic delegation from Lisbon, Columbiana County, was the first 
delegation to reach Canton, Monday, September 28th. The party arrived over 
the Cleveland, Canton and Southern on a special train of ten coaches. It was 
composed of between six hundred and seven hundred people and included em- 
ployes of the. Lisbon Tin Plate Company, farmers, miners, mechanics, business 
and professional men and citizens generally, with a number of ladies . A parade 
was organized by the Canton Troop and marched to the McKinley home to 
music by the Lisbon City Band and the McKinley and Hobart Drum Corps, 
Master Carl Martin, a lad of diminutive stature in Continental uniform, being 
drum major of the latter. Each of the marchers carried a small American 
flag and the sight was inspiring. At the home the Lisbon Glee Club enthused 
the crowd with a rallying campaign song, and Hon. R. W. Tayler, pres- 
ent Congressman from the district, made an eloquent address in introducing 
the party. He said : 

"Major McKinley ; The Republicans of Lisbon bring you greetings, of 
whose sincerity we do not need to give you this assurance. Each delegation 
which visits you bears some special message, and we have ours. We have a 
peculiar pride in you and your political career, for, at its critical moment, 
We were an important, and, perhaps, a controlling factor. When, in 1876, you 
first became a candidate for Congress it was Columbiana County which, at the 
primary election, first spoke, and, in speaking as it did for you, gave your can- 
didacy the momentum which easily carried you to victory. In that preliminary 
contest New Lisbon was the seat of operations in your behalf, and one-fourth 
of all the votes cast for you in the county were polled in our own town. No- 
where had you so many friends and at no place did you receive so many votes. 
Ever since, Lisbon has faithfully stood your friend; but she has been 
rewarded, not alone by your career and your nomination for the Presidency. 
She has, in a most fitting way, been especially rewarded by her fidelity to you. 
Through your untiring efiforts, it has become possible to manufacture, on 
American soil, the tin plate which the American people need. And one of the 
largest and most perfectly equipped tin plate factories in the country has been 
constructed and is in successful operation at Lisbon. Thus we have been in a 
substantial manner repaid for our early devotion to your cause We are Re- 
publicans, like host^ of others who have called upon you, and we rejoice, not 
only in what I have before referred to, but especially in the fact that our own 
McKinley is, to-day in the fore front of the great battle of the century in 
which the watchwords are protection to the American farm and factory and 
home ; the preservation of law and order ; honest money for honest toil, and 
the Nation's honor above everything." (Great applause.) 

290 



Major McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Tatler, My Fellow Citizens and Ladies and Gentlemen j I need 
not say to you that I am dt?eply moved by your call on this inclement day. You 
are my old constituents and come from the home where my ancestors lived. I 
am very glad, indeed, to have been connected with National legislation 
that gave to the town of Lisbon an enterprising tin plate plant which affords 
employment, as I am informod, to more than 325 people. You, farmers and 
merchants and business men, know how^ valuable that plant has been to the 
community and county; and I submit to you, no matter what may have been 
your politics in the past, whether you would not prefer to have that tin-plate 
factory in your county and State rather than to have it in Wales. (Great ap- 
plause and cries of 'Right, right.') It only illustrates what has been said 
thousand of times by the statesmen of the past and by the leaders of the 
present, that the more factories you can have in any community, the better 
will be the general business conditions and the better the market for the 
farmer. But it is not my purpose, gentlemen, to address you upon political 
questions, as this to me is m.ore in the nature of a visit from old and valued 
friends, and as such I address you. Love for home and ancestry have a place 
in every human heart. It is borne in every manly breast and is bounded by no 
clime, country, nationality or race. It is as wide as the heavens and as fixed 
as the stars. It is a sentiment which lies at the foundation of society and 
family and cements and strengthens both. It wields family together in bonds 
of affection ; it elevates, enriches and purifies every home and makes citizen- 
ship and love of country stronger and better. (Applause.) It keeps home 
influence almost immortal, and the example of mother and father ever present 
with their children as the sheet anchor of safety in the tempestuous seas of 
life. This call brings to mind thoughts of my own blood and kindred, who 
■were among the pioneers of your town, and have long since passed away, but 
perhaps are still remembered by your older citizens. It is not strange, there- 
fore, that in a peculiar sense I have a strong feeling for the town of Lisbon. 
The old and honored names associated wfth its early history are as familiar to 
me as the primer of my boyhood. None of the early Ohio communities were 
more fortunate than yours in the character of the men who built up your town 
and sustained it. Your old business men were among the ablest in the State, 
and your lawyers, preachers and doctors were famous— some of them, not only 
beyond the lines of your county, but beyond the limits of the State. (Applause.) 
I have always cherished the fact that my great grandfather was one of the 
earliest school-masters of your village and the beloved teacher of many of your 
most distinguished and useful citizens. I have always counted it an honor, a 
special honor, that it was given to me to represent the Congressional district 
in which my immediate ancestors on both sides had lived for three venerations. 
It has been to me a special distinction to have had the confidence and trust of 
your community, which has ever been a source of strength and inspiration. 
(Great applause.) I may be pardoned if I recall in this presence that in 1876 
when first a candidate for Congress, your town, after a fight quite as stubborn 
as you had ever experienced, gave me a majority and that I received a majority 
also from your county which practically settled the contest between myself 
and my competitors for the nomination, and sent me for the first time to the 
National House of Representatives. I have wondered many times since why 
you should have given me that majority against my distinguished competitor 
whose experience and age were much gi'eater than mine, and whose services 
would have conserved your interests quite as well as mine. For that early 

29; 



manifestation of your trust in me as a young man, you will ever have my 
gratitude. (Great applause.) I am deeply touched by the generous words of 
your honored Eepresentative and spokesman, and heartily reciprocate the 
kind sentiments which he has expressed. I forbear to congi-atulate you upon 
the choice you have made for your Representative in the person of Mr. Tayler. 
(Great applause.) A Congressional district does the right thing when it sends 
a young man to the National House of Representatives and keeps him there for 
many years, and as you have selected one so able and experienced, I am sure 
every interest of yours, large or small, will be carefully, ably and conscien- 
tiously guarded. (Applause.) Your presence here indicates that you have not 
lost interest in Republican principles and that you are quite as much if not more 
concerned in their triumph this year than you have ever been before. I am 
glad to be assured that I have your warm and hearty sympathy and support as 
I have had always in the years of the past I will not venture to enter upon 
any political discussion this afternoon, feeling certain that the good old county 
of Columbiana has already determined that her vote shall be given for a sound 
currency ; an unquestioned National credit ; an American protective tariff and 
American reciprocity ; the supremacy of law and the peace and good order of 
society. (Great cheering.) I thank you my fellow citizens, for this call and it 
will give me great pleasure, if it shall be your desire, to meet and greet each 
one of you personally." (Great applause.) 

NORTHERN CONFERENCE OF THE A. M. E. CHURCH. 

The Cleveland Terminal and Valley Railroad at 1 :08 Monday afternoon, 
September 28th, brought several hundred colored people to call on Major Mc- 
KiNLEY . They were ministers and delegates who had been attending the annual 
conference of the North Ohio district of the Afro- American Methodist Episco- 
pal church. The delegation was met at the depot by the Canton Troop, the 
Reception Committee and the Frst "Ward Drum Corps. There was no demon- 
stration in the parade to the McKinley home, but the reception there was a 
most enthusiastic one. Hon. John P. Green, of Cleveland, led the delegation 
and made a short introductory address. He said it was his pleasure to intro- 
duce Bishops representing eighty ministers and about five thousand communi- 
cants of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and to assure Major Mc- 
Kinley that they would do all in their power to bring about his election. 
"The colored race," he concluded, "have always been on the right side of every 
question before the American people, and now that the Nation's honor and 
integrity are at issue, they are again on the right side." He then introduced 
Bishop B. F. Lee, who with a few words of congratulation, introduced Bishop 
B. W, Arnett, who said: 

"Major McKinley: We come to assure you that we will never cease our 
efforts in your behalf until we have achieved such a victory in November as 
was won .by our fathers in their early struggles for liberty. We come to you, 
sir, because you represent the cardinal principles of the Republican Party 
which have so benefitted our race — the principles for which you and your 
comrades struggled from 1861 to 1865. (Cheers.) We believe you to be the 
true successor to the emancipator of our race, that martyr to constitution and 
liberty, the beloved railsplitter who led us out of bondage. We come to you 
as the representative of the party of Chase and Wade, of Giddings and Grant, 
men who fought for the preservation of our dearly purchased liberty, purchased 
by the blood of your fathers and of mine. We expect you to achieve in Novem- 

292 



ber a victory greater than you helped to win then. Eight millions of colored 
people look upon you as the star of hope of their race and of this country. As 
in the days of slavery, we kept our eyes on the Star of the North, so this year 
we will keep our eyes on you till you are in the Presidential chair." 

Major McKiNLEY spoke feelingly of the great development of the race 
since their emancipation, and of the pleasure the visit gave him. As a 
preliminary to the hand shaking Bishop Arnett stepped forward and said: "I 
have shaken hands with every President since Lincoln-. I want the honor, 
Major McKiNLEY, of conferring the Presidential succession on you." And with 
that he grasped the Major's hand most cordially amid the cheering of the 
multitude. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Bishop Lee, Bishop Arnett AND My Fellow Citizens: This is to me a 
most interesting and inspiring call. I appreciate the kind, the earnest and the 
eloquent words spoken by Bishop Arnett. They move my soul. They inspire 
me with confidence. I wish his voice and the patriotic sentiments he so well 
expressed, might have been heard by thousands rather than by the few hun- 
dreds gathered about me to-day. i Applause.) I am glad to meet the minis- 
ters of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. That you should set aside the 
business of your Annual Conference long enough to pay me a visit is an honor 
which I gi'eatly appreciate, and shall long remember. It is a matchless civili- 
zation in which we live ; a civilization that recognizes the common and universal 
brotherhood of man. (Great applause.) It is a glorious Constitution, an 
American Constitution under which we live, and that secures to every citizen 
beneath our flag absolute freedom of religious doctrine and privilege and belief. 
A Constitution that recognizes neither creed nor color, nor race nor nationality, 
nor caste, nor classes, (great applause) but protects and defends all alike, and 
accords to every citizen civil and religious liberty. The history of your race 
is one of wonderful progress under the most trying and difficult conditions. 
You have demonstrated your patience and patriotism, courage and intelligence 
and your willingness to sacrifice for your country and sustain its honor at all 
times and under all circumstances. (Applause.) You have made marked and 
commendable strides in the field of education and learning. Your educational 
institutions, public and private, are scattered all over the country, and within 
their walls you are giving generous and liberal education to the men of your 
race, fitting them for the responsibilities of life and equipping them for good 
citizenship. (Applause.) Wilberforce University (great applause) in our own 
State is a proud monument to your enterprise and character, an institution 
among the oldest if not the oldest of its kind, dedicated to the education of 
your own people, which is sending teachers, preachers, and men of the learned 
professions to every part of the counti'y. Not only have you been looking care- 
fully after the intellectual, but you have not neglected the moral condition of 
your race. You have recognized, and properly so, that good character is quite 
as essential as good education. (Applause.) That good morals are never to be 
dispensed with, even for learning. (Renewed applause.) Both should go to- 
gether. In twenty years the membership of your church has increased from 
172,000 to about 600,000, and your preachers from 1,334 to 4,252. I am glad to 
note the advancement of any organization which has for its object the elevation 
of mankind and the improvement and betterment of American citizenship. 
(Applause.) You, and the race to whom you belong, have my hearty congrat- 
ulations upon the progress you have already made, and my prayer for still greater 

293 



progress in the future. (Great applause.) I bid you improve the glorious 
opportunities with which you are blessed. (Applause.) I recall, as I stand in 
your presence to-day, with peculiar pleasure, that, during the gi-eat Inter- 
national Exposition at Chicago at the World's Parliament of Religions, wiien men 
of all countries and races and religions had assembled under one roof. 
Bishop Arnett was chosen to represent your race. (Great applause.) It was a 
high and deserved distinction. With what modesty and ability he bore the 
honor ; with what credit to your race and to our country he discharged every 
duty, every Ohioan knows and every Ohioan feels an increasing pride in him 
and the race he represents. May God bless and keep you all. It will be my 
pleasure, if it is yours, to meet and greet each one of you personally." (Great, 
and long continued applause, followed by a reception.) 

THE OLD 50LDIERS FROfl SANDUSKY. 

The inclement weather of the previous forty-eight hours materially inter- 
fered with the intended visits of delegations to Canton, and several arranged 
for Tuesday, September 29th, were postponed. Two parties came, but the rain- 
fall at the time of their arrival was so heavy that calls at the McKinley home 
and receptions on the lawn were impracticable. Instead, the visitors, as they 
arrived, were taken to the Tabernacle, whither Major McKinley was driven to 
receive their greetings and address them. The first to arrive were the old 
veterans from the State Soldiers' Home at Sandusky, Ohio, and business men 
and citizens generally from that vicinity as their guests. The party numbered 
between three and four hundred people and was accompanied by the Great 
AVestern Band of Sandusky. They went direct from the Cleveland Terminal 
and Valley Railroad depot to the Tabernacle. Major MoKinley, accompanie^i 
by Congi-essman Tayler, was driven to the hall. Greetings on behalf of the 
old soldiers were delivered by Sergeant B. F. Hopkins, of the Home, who said 
in part : 

"Major McKinley: To me has been delegated one of the most pleasant 
duties of my life. It is to present to you the regard and express the high 
esteem in which you are held by these, our comrades of the Civil War. We 
come, sir, from a pleasant Home, near Sandusky Bay, prepared by the grateful 
people of the great State of Ohio for the care and comfort of those who defend- 
ed them in the hours of danger. More than thirty years after the close of that 
terrible contest, a combination has been formed which, if permitted to be suc- 
cessful, will forever tarnish the honor and destroy the credit of this great Gov- 
ernment. We believe in the principles promulgated in the platform of the 
party whose representive you are. We believe that your elevation to the high 
position to which you aspire, would increase prosperity throughout the land 
and that the extinguished fires of thousands of forges would be rekindled and 
blaze forth with increased brightness. We believe that millions of spindles 
now rusting in idleness would resume their revolutions with increased rapidity ; 
that business in all its various branches would receive fresh impetus, and that 
prosperity would increase and prevail throughout the land. Believing this, we 
come to- day to renew and strengthen our fealty to the Union and pledge our 
support to you and the party you represent, the party of protection and honest 
money. Believe me, sir, that 

'Beneath these coats of blue 
Beat hearts steadfast and true' — 

as true to the Constitution and the Union as they did from 1861 to 1865, and 1 

294 



assure you, sir, that the sincere and earnest desire of every one of them is 
that as you journey along life's pathway your every step may be attended by 
health, prosperity and success." (Great applause.) 

' Mr, Linn ^Y. Hull spoke in behalf the citizens of Sandusky and Erie Coun- 
ty aside from the Soldiers' Home delegation. He said : 

" Major McKiNLEY : We come as the guests and upon the invitation of 
these gallant men who wore and wear the blue, who risked their then youthful 
lives upon the battlefields of the Republic that the Nation might not perish, 
and stood shoulder to shoulder with their matchless leader in this campaign. 
And as they risked their lives then to preserve the Nation, their votes and voices 
are now found offered in defense of the National honor. Erie County, Ohio, 
from which we come, is on the border land of the State and the Nation, from 
whose shores across the waters of Lake Erie, can be seen the dim outline of the 
territory of a foreign land. No part of the country has felt the blight of free 
trade more than the county from which we hail. It put out the fires in our 
furnaces, stopped the wheels in our shops and brought disaster to our rich 
agricultural interests. We come not as strangers, but as old friends to greet 
our leader, whose voice we have often heard and under whose banner we have 
often marched to victory. To no one, is more credit due for the redemption of 
Erie County from Democracy than William MoKinley. You have spoken there 
in every campaign, save one, since 1890 and in 1891. With you as candidate for 
Governor (great applause) we saw th-e light of victory for the first time in 
many years, giving you a majority of one, which in 1893 was increased to over 
nine hundred and in the following year, with the aid of your voice and match- 
less presence, reached seventen hundred. This year we pledge a larger 
majority for McKinley and the cause you represent than has ever been 
recorded before. We come to renew our allegiance and pledge to you again 
our loyal and unfaltering support. We congratulate you that the skies are 
aflame with the signs of victory and promise you our aid, and obedience to your 
commands as our great leader, until the struggle is ended, and the cannon's 
boom and the waving banners and the glad shouts of the freemen of the 
Republic, proclaim that you have led us into the sunshine on the mountain 
heights of victory ; and the electric spark flashes to the world that the honor 
of America is safe, that the flag still waves with every star undimmed and no 
stripe sullied — that William McKinley has beenchosen President of the United 
States." (Great applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Sergeant Hopkins, Mr. Hull, My Comrades, and Ladies and Gentlembn: 
I wish I might be able to make fitting and suitable response to the gracious 
words of congratulation and good will which have been spoken in your behalf. 
It is indeed a kind and generous act of comradeship that brings, on this 
unpleasant day, the members of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, of San- 
dusky to this city to pay me a visit. My comrades, I fully and heartily appre- 
ciate it. No body of men have visited me in the last three months whose com- 
ing has given me more pleasure or touched me more deeply than the call of my 
old comrades of the Sandusky Home. (Applause.) When you entered the 
[service you were younger than you are now. (Cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') Thirty- 
ifive years ago most of you enlisted and thirty-one years ago most of you were 
mustered out of the service. You were then fresh and young, with the red 
Swine of early manhood mantling your cheeks. You are older now, but your 

295 



hearts warm for the country and for the old flag just as they did in 1861. (Great 
applause.) When you entered the service you entered not for fame; you 
entered not for the pittance that was paid you ; you entered not for glory or 
popular applause ; but you entered the service from the purest and highest 
motives of patriotism, that no harm should come to our dear old country. (Ap- 
plause.) This was the motive of every old soldier. Think what the great 
army of which you were a part was willing to do. They were willing to give 
life and health and strength ; they were willing to die that the American Union 
might be saved. (Applause.) 

"So nigh to grandeur is our dust. 

So near to God is man ; 
When duty whispers low, thou must. 

The youth replies, I can." 

(Great applause.) And so, nearly two millions of men when duty called, no 
matter what the exactions demanded, were ready to answer to the call of their 
country and defend their country's free institutions. There are now on the 
pension roil of the Government more men than were enlisted in the War of the 
Revolution, the War of 1812 and the War with Mexico combined. Within 
about fifty thousand as many men on the pension rolls of the United States 
to-day as were in all the wars in which this Government was engaged from the 
Kevolution to the Civil War. I have always been in favor of pensioning the 
deserving and disabled soldiers of the Republic, and I am now in favor of hav- 
ing their pensions paid in money whose value does not rest upon a mere fiat and 
which can not be depreciated by distress, flood or fire. (Great applause.) I 
am opposed to cutting down pensions in that way. I want the pensioners 
who are among the largest creditors of the Government to-day, as I want all 
the creditors of the government, great or small, to be paid in the best money 
in the world, dollars worth one hundred cents every day and everywhere. 
(Applause.) I am glad to have you here to-day. I am glad to have this large 
body of veteran soldiers declare, as your spokesman has declared, that they 
are still in favor of the country and the country's hongr. (Applause.) A 
Color Bearer during the war while in front of the enemy, in his anxiety to 
accomplish something, marched in front of the lines and on toward the enemy's 
works, when the General commanding from the rear called out, 'Bring those 
colors back to the line ;' the Sergeant answered promptly with the voice of 
command that went back to the General quicker than a minnie ball. 'Bring 
the line up to the colors.' (Laughter and applause. ) We are carrying the same 
old colors to-day that wo carried thirty-five years ago. Boys, bring the lines 
up to the colors. (Great applause.) My comrades, I thank you. I appre- 
ciate this call . Other delegations are coming. I beg you convey to those dear 
old comrades, who could not come with you on this inclement day, my best 
wishes, my warmest regards, my sincere prayers for their health and content- 
ment, and I also beg that you convey to that dear old commander, General 
Force, my sincere respects and best wishes. I hope that you will take back 
with you pleasant memories of your visit to Canton . " (Great applause . ) 

A reception was then held during which the old soldiers were cordially 
greeted, many of them instantly by name, by their beloved comrade, Major 
McKiNLEY. The scene was very affecting, and many who witnessed it were 
moved to tears. 



296 



AUBURN AND NORTHERN INDIANA. 

The Sandusky crowd had barely left the hall when another was on hand. 
The second started from Walkerton, in Northern Indiana, and picked up re- 
cruits between that point and Chicago Junction, Ohio. It was made up of rail- 
road men in all branches of the service, farmers, mechanics and citizens in 
general, including a number of women. The party, numbering between 500 and 
600 people, can^e in a special train over the Cleveland Terminal and Valley 
Railroad, arriving shortly after one o'clock. It was accompanied by the I. O 
O. F. Band_of Garrett, Ind., and the Republic (Ohio) Cornet Band. The greet- 
ings of the visitors were presented by Judge W. L. Penfield of Auburn, of the 
Thirty-fifth Judicial District of Indiana. He said : 

"Major McKinley: I have the honor to present to you a delegation of 
representative men from the various walks of life. It includes many who are 
engaged in the pursuit of agriculture and many who are in the service of the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, one of the oldest and most important 
railroads in this country. Many of these men I have long known, and wherever 
they are known they are honored and respected for their fearless, upright and 
independent character. They are men who, in the shops, behind the brake, and 
at the throttle, have given proofs of physical courage, moral heroism and loy- 
alty to duty, and I believe they are worthy of their inheritance, worthy of the 
imperial birthright of American citizenship, and that they measure up to the 
old-fafihioned standard of American manhood and character, which has been 
handed down from sire to son from the glorious days of Washington. It is no 
ordinary occasion that has attracted them hither in such large numbers, but it 
is the consciousness of the perils that threaten our country which has drawn 
them closer to their leader. They come, very many of them, from that portion 
of Indiana which is embraced in the old Western Reserve, which is unsurpassed 
anywhere in the fertility of its soil; in the exuberance of its productions, in as 
an intelligent, prosperous, virtuous and well-ordered community. Never in any 
grave crisis in the history of our country have they been found wanting. Not 
in 1860, when Indiana gave her generous support to Abraham Lincolx at the 
ballot-box ; nor in the civil conflict, when she gave to the armies of the Union 
the flower of her manhood ; nor will she be found wanting in 1896, when the 
issue is drawn between National honor aad dishonor, between liberty regulated 
by law and chaos by anarchy. The great heart of the old Hoosier State is all 
aglow with loyalty. Its hills and prairies are all ablaze with the fires of patriot- 
ism, and on the third day of next November she will register the largest ma- 
jority ever given by her to a Presidential candidate — for her favorite and chosen 
leader, William McKinley, of Ohio. (Great applause.) In his letter of ac- 
ceptance the Chicago candidate finds words of approval for the payment of 
wages in fifty-thi'ee-cent dollars, but no words of approval for the protection of 
our wage-earners in American workshops against the competition of cheap 
foreign labor. Not a word for their protection against the competion of cheap 
labor in the workshops of foreign lands. In his letter of acceptance he tells 
the idle thousands of unemployed that they can wait while he proceeds to open 
the mints. We cannot comprehend that mysterious plan of prosperity. We 
cannot comprehend that system of economy and finance which is taught in the 
'Arabian Nights,' in the 'Count of Monte Christo,' and ' Don Quixote,' and we 
cannot comprehend that mysterious plan of prosperity which by the incantation, 
'Open Sesame,' to the mills and printing presses is to transform this country into 
s, New Eldorado by the magic of rag money and fifty-three-cent dollars. He 

297 



was for tariff reform in 1892, and still abides by his convictions— a reform that 
was inaugurated over your protest and warning and which was ushered in on 
the day of the last Presidential election by that contagious National disease, the 
creeping paralysis of hard times. You enlisted, if I am not mistaken, in the 
army of the Union before you attained your majority, and ended your war 
service in 1865, and are now engaged in the calm and peaceful discussion of the 
issues of economy and finance. But the lion-hearted Knight of the Platte and 
his allies (laughter) are engaged in a most bloody, murderous and destructive 
warfare against the Quixotic gold-standard wind mills of Great Britain. Y.'e can 
comprehend your methods and remedies. (Applause.) We can conipyehond that 
plan which points the way back to prosperity. We can comprehend that there 
are millions of idle men, eager, willing, waiting for the mills to reopen, with the 
good old jobs back with full time, full wages and honest dollars. We can 
comprehend that the lands of cheap dollars are everywhere the lands of cheap 
men. (Applause.) But, sir, while these questions are of vital, urgent impor- 
tance, there are other questions that go down to the very foundation of our in- 
stitutions For the first time in the history of our country a great Ivational 
party has adopted a so-called financial plank, which consists practically in a 
National game of poker, with the silver barons at one end of the table and 
the laboring men at the other. It is needless to say that the silver barons 
hold all the trump cards. For the first time in the history of our country 
a Presidential candidate in his speeches advises his supposed support- 
ers by uttering texts of holy writ, but in the next breath makes a 
public display of hypocrisy by false pretensions to other principles. For 
the first time in our history has a great National party in National con- 
vention made an open, avowed and direct assault upon the Supreme Court 
of our country, and if we would apj)reciate the importance of the issues thus 
involved, it could not well be done without a sui'vey of the events that led 
up to the adoption of the Federal Constitution. With sober truth, it may 
be said that the present contest involves some important phase of almost every 
great controversy through which our country has passed, and a popular verdict 
in favor of the Chicago platform would mean in its logical effect a reopening- 
and reargument of those controversies and the reversal of judgments in gi-eat 
causes pleaded by Hamilton, Pixckxey, Wirt, Webster and Garfield, and 
adjudged by Marshall, Taney, Chase and Waite. It means the unsettling of 
the foundations of property, of public laws and private rights and the blotting 
out of many of the brightest pages of our history. But, sir, the limitations 
prescribed by the proprieties of the occasion forbid even a passing glance at 
those events, and I pause for the discharge of a pleasing duty to pi'esent to you 
these earnest and patriotic men, who draw near for hope, counsel and inspira- 
tion ; and on their behalf to lay at your feet a gracious and splendid offering, 
the offering of their trust, respect and confidence, their loyal and enthusiastic 
support, not merely for the sake of the party, not merely for the sake of the 
candidate, but for the sake of country, and because the candidate stands for and 
is associated with the cause of America for Americans ; the cause of prosper! tv 
restored and the image of happy homes, homes gladdened once more with th*^ 
voices of renewed toil ; once more the blazing hearthstone, once more tho' 
music of the needle and the shuttle and the songs of happy children and tho- 
proud American name lifted up and the American faith and honor unsullied and 
sustained as the stainless flag." (Great applause, followed by more cheering 
for McKiNLEY as he arose to speak.) 



298 



riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens OP Indiana : I am sure you have enjoyed with me 
the eloquent and inspiring speech of your spokesman. It has elevatod our 
thought ; it has quickened our patriotic aspirations ; it has made us think more 
of our free institutions, and I am sure has increased our love for country. 
(Applause.) I am glad to welcome to my home citizens of a neighboring State 
representing all the occupations and employments of the people. I am glad to 
welcome the farmers and the employes of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 
Company and the citizens generally who have honored me with this call this 
afternoon. (Applause.) The farmers of this country must appreciate and will 
appreciate, if they do not already, that we can not increase their markets or 
decrease their competition either at home or abroad by destroying the credit 
of the country. (Applause and cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') That we can not cut 
down the competition which they have in India and Russia and the Argentine 
Republic, or increase consumption at home of their products by cutting down 
the value of the currency of the United States. The only way farmers can be 
benefitted is through a larger consuming class. (Applause.) The mints will 
not furnish the farmer with more consumers. He has the most profitable 
market *or what he produces here at home and not abroad. (Applause.) He is 
met in the markets of the world by the products of other lands beyond the seas. 
The only market he can rely upon every day of the year is the American mar- 
ket (applause) and what he wants to know is how to make that American 
market the best. He can not do it by closing the mills. (Cheers.) He can 
not do it by putting out the flres of our furnaces. (Renewed cheers.) He can 
not do it by taking business away from the great railroad lines of the country. 
He can only improve the American market by favoring a policy that will put 
every man to work who lives beneath our flag and put them to work, too, at 
living wages (great applause) not the wage scale of some other nation, but the 
American scale, the best in the world. (Great applause) And you can not 
improve that market by destroying the credit of the country, for the credit of 
the country lies at the foundation of capital and prosperity. The moment 
you have destroyed the credit of the country you have taken away from the 
manufacturer the ability to get money with which to conduct his busi- 
ness ; and when he cannot conduct his business he can not employ men ; 
when he does not employ men he does not pay wages ; when men do not 
receive wages, they have no wages to spend ; and when they have no 
wages to spend they make poor customers for the farmers. (Great applause.) 
The farmer can no more increase the value of his wheat by diminishing 
the value of the American dollar than he can increase the quantity of hay 
by diminishing the size of the hay wagon on which he hauls it to market. 
(Tremendous cheering and cries of 'Good, good.') The railroads of the country 
make business. They consume 50,000,000 tons of coal a year ; that is what you 
engineers burn every twelve months. Wluit does that do ? (Cries of 'It gives 
us work.') Yes, it gives you employment while you are burning it. It gives 
the thousands of miners employment while they are digging it. This is the 
kind of a policy we advocate — let everybody help everybody else. (Great ap- 
plause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinlet.') I see that the railway trains 
service has four distinct organizations ; probably more — that of the engini>iM-s, 
firemen, trainmen and the order of Railway Conductors, with other organiza- 
tions auxiliary thereto among which are the switchmen and telegraphers. I am 
informed that each of these organizations has a department of insurance mutual 
in its character, and conducted and administered by men of their respective 

299 



organizations. Am I right about this ? (Cries of 'Yes, yes.') The highest 
tribute to their business capacity and honesty is found in the fact that not one 
dollar has been lost or squandered. The trainmen have paid out nearly $3,- 
500,000. The fireman have paid out nearly $4,000,000. The conductors have 
paid out nearly $2,500,000, while the engineers, v^hich I believe is the oldest 
organization, have paid out nearly $6 000,000. The railroad men, too, are in- 
vestors and stockholders in loan associations, and have savings in savings banks 
—or did have. (Laughter and cheers.) What a deep interest, therefore, the 
railroad men have in the rightful settlement of the money question. Not only 
are they interested in preserving the integrity of their savings for their old 
age or disqualification, and their insurance to their families in case of accident 
or death, but they are interested in their present and future vrages. I do not 
believe that the railroad men of this country will ever consent to having 
their savings cut in two or their insurance money pail at the rate of fifty- 
two cents on the dollar. (Cries of 'No, no.') Nor will they be satisfied to re- 
ceive their wages in anything but a currency which shall be worth a full one 
hundred cents. Why, they are talking about the creditors of the country ! 
They are animadverting against them. Who are the creditors of this country? 
They are the men who labor and put by the earnings of labor. (Tremendous 
cheering.) The greatest creditors of this country to-day are the workingmen. 
Aside from what is due them upon investments and savings, their current 
wages make theci the largest creditor class of the United States. The employ- 
ers of this country owe their employes every thirty days, in good times (Cries 
of 'Not now, though,' followed by great laughter,) naore than the bonded debt 
of the United States. Nearly $500,000,000 are paid annually to the railroad 
employes alone. Does the railroad employe propose to aid any party to enact 
legislation which will cut his pay roll from twenty-five to fifty per cent in the 
name of a cheap dollar? (Loud cries of 'No, no.') I have seen it stated some- 
where that of the 750,000 railroad employes in the United States about seventy- 
five per cent of them are voters. I can not be mistaken when I express the 
belief that those men will not cast their votes in favor of a debased curi-ency 
and the repudiation either of public or private obligations. Nothing marks 
the wonderful progress of the country more than its railroad business. In 
1880, 461,000 men were employed in the railroad business ; in 1890, 701,000. It 
has been stated by some of the leaders of the Democratic party that free coin- 
age of silver would raise the price of silver from sixty-five cents an ounce, the 
present market price, to 129 cents an ounce, in other words make fifty-three cents 
worth of silver actually worth 100 cents. I do not believe it. Do you? (Cries 
, of 'No, no, of course we don't.') I do not believe that the free coinage of the 
silver product of the United States, or the free coinage of the silver product 
of the world, with the fiat of the Government of the United States could make 
a thing valued at only fifty-three cents worth a hundred cents. (Great applause 
and cries of 'No.') Such a proposition is contradicted by reason and ezperi- 
enee and is opposed to common sense and the plain principles of old fashioned 
honesty. Now, my countrymen, much a& I would be glad to speak to you 
longer I must not continue Other delegations are coming. I thank you fnr this 
call and for the assurances you have given me of your support to the grand 
principles which, by the favor of a great political party I stand for, at this 
moment. I am glad to know that the great State of Indiana, the State of Har- 
rison (great applause) and Morton (renewed applause) will stand this year, as 
it has stood in all the years of the past, for the country and the country's 
honor and for a policy that will give to the American people the largest pros- 

300 



perity in their homes, the greatest development of their resources, and the 
highest credit of the Government. I bid yom all good afternoon." (Great 
applause followed by a brief but very enjoyable reception.) 

THOUSANDS THROUGH THE RAIN. 

Wednesday morning, September 30th, dawned dreary and dismal, with 
rain falling almost incessantly. The impractability of demonstrations on the 
McKinley lawn was apparent, and it was arranged to have the receptions of 
visiting delegations held in the Tabernacle. The visitors announced to come 
from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, arrived early, their special train of nine coaches 
steaming into the Ft. Wayne depot about 8 :00 a. m. Rain was then pouring down 
in torrents, and the Canton Troop and Reception Committee organized a hasty 
march for the Tabernacle. MajorMcKiNLKY was apprised of their early arrival, 
and, as soon as he could arrange it, was driven there to receive the visitors. 
This delegation, numbering between four hundred and five hundred people, came 
from Center County, Pennsylvania, which was the first in the contest for the 
nomination to instruct for McKinley, a fact which was made conspicuous on 
the banners carried. Many residents of Canton are natives of Center County, 
and were on hand to gi-eet their old neighbors and friends. And the visit- 
ors, expecting to meet old friends, arranged their excursion so as to spend the 
greater part of the day in Canton. Ex-Mayor Cassidy joined the visitors on 
their arrival and was kept busy shaking hands with them. He accompanied the 
party to the Tabernacle, and when Major McKinley arrived, made an introduc- 
tory address in a happy vein, telling what good people came from Center County. 
Mr. W. E. Gray, of Bellefonte, was introduced as spokesman for the visitors. 
He said in substance that he was glad to introduce so enthusiastic a delega- 
tion from the very first county of the Keystone State to instruct for 
McKinley when the contest for the St. Louis nomination was on. He said 
Major McKinley would have five thousand majority in Center County, and that 
he has and will continue to have their enthusiastic support in the National con- 
test. The people of Pennsylvania, he said, had been looking forward eagerly 
and expectantly to his elevation to the high ofiice of President, and they firmly 
believe that when that is accomplished the great doctrines of the Republican 
Party, protection, sound money and supremacy of law, will be fully and lastingly 
established. Major McKinley made an earnest, neighborly address, compliment- 
ing the visitors on their State, its resources and its people. His sentiments were 
warmly applauded and the enthusiasm of the callers seemed not to have waned 
in the least through a night of travel and a march through the rain. The hand- 
shaking and personal greetings were very hearty, and the Pennsylvanians 
seemed greatly pleased with their pilgrimage. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Gray and My Fellow Citizens: It gives me much pleasure to meet 
and greet at my home my fellow citizens of Center County, Pennsylvania. 
Center is one of the counties of Pennsylvania from which Stark county recruit- 
ed a considerable portion of its population. It was unnecessary, therefore, for 
Mr. Cassidy to assure me that I was to speak to an extraordinary body of men, 
knowing, as I do, the excellent character of the Center people who live in 
Molly Stark (Laughter and applause.) I am glad to address the citizens of a 
county in Pennsylvania that has furnished so many distinguished men to the 
public service. It was my honor to be personally acquainted with the old war 

301 



Governor, Andrew G. Curtin, (applause) with whom Lsei'ved for a time in the 
National House of Kepresentatives. It has been my privilege to know for 
years General James Beaver, Governor from 1889 to 1893, (great applause"* as 
well as Governor Hastings. (Eenewed applause.) Both of the latter gentle- 
men have spoken from this platform many, many times, and no speakers ever 
came to this city, who have been more welcome or who have been favored with 
larger audiences than those two distinguished citizens of your county. I am 
glad to meet the Eepublicans of the gi-eatest Republican State of the American 
Union. (Applause.) Whatever other States may have done in the past, your 
glorious old commonwealth has always been true to the doctrines of the Repub- 
lican party, and in every National contest has upheld the Republican cause. A 
visit from Pennsylvania is always enjoyed by me. (Applause.) I like that old 
State. My ancestors came from it and I have for you a feeling of kinship. I 
know your great resources. I know your wonderful manufacturing achieve- 
ments. I know the wealth of your state and its splendid citizenship, and I am 
glad to be assured by Pennsylvanians that in this great National contest for 
public honor, public and private honesty, for the supremacy of law and order, 
for good government and good politics and good morals, your great state will 
lead in the triumphant march for Republican principles. (Great applause and 
cries of 'That's right.') I have often wondered if Pennsylvania's powerful 
influence for stability, conservatism and prosperity in the Union were prop- 
erly appreciated. Her agriculture, commerce and manufactures, while inde- 
pendent in one sense, have always been mutually inter-dependent, beneficial 
and helpful. The whole community has profited by each and all of them. 
This has been the case ever since its settlement in pioneer days and under its 
wise system of political economy, not created or fostered by the creed of vis- 
ionaries, but that of plain, sensible, practical men, it is more apparent to-day 
than ever. By the census of 1890, I have noted, as doubtless you have noted, 
that you have farm values in Pennsylvania in your twenty million acres of 
$975,000,000, or an average valuation of more than $48 per acre for the whole 
State. In your products, more than $129,000,000, or an average in prosperous 
times when prices were good, of $6 per acre, while your manufactures which 
benefit and enrich the farmers, have an annul pay roll or reward of labor, of 
$134,000,000, which would mean that your farmers would have from them, if 
they furnished all the breadstuffs and other farm products that your laborers 
consume, nearly $6.50 per acre each, every year. All of these great interests 
are prosperous when business is good, and all a^re embarrassed when business 
is bad. No other similar reward to husbandry is presented anywhere ; and I 
make no apology, my fellow-citizens, for urging a like policy everywhere, or 
for having always endeavored to the extent of my best efforts to continue this 
wise system under which you have had such splendid results in the State of 
Pennsylvania. (Great cheering.) Call it the 'Pennsylvania system,' if you will 
— it only does honor to Pennsylvania and her wise and splendid statesmanship — 
for it benefits all our laborers, farmers, trades and people in all parts of the 
American Union. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') Why should we 
not all do our work and spend all our own wages at home, giving to both 
farmers and workingmen the richest rewards for their labor of any country 
under the sun? (Great applause and cries of 'That's the stuff.') Answer; me 
that, my fellow citizens! (Applause and cries of 'Give us protection.') My 
greatest concern, my chief object in this, as in every campaign, is to drive 
from our shores distress and want and misery and lift up those who are bowed 
down, and bring to those who ai*e in want, work and prosperity. (Applause.) 

302 



And 1 will never view with tolerance any system which has a diCferent object 
towards any American citizen anywhere within the limits of the great Republic. 
(Great applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') The other question 
involved in this campaign is the reactionary policy of free silver, which I need 
hardly mention to a Pennsylvania audience, to the people of honest Quaker 
descent who love honesty and practice it, to insure its immediate and emphatic 
condemnation. (Applause.) One of the injurious effects from the mere advo- 
cacy of free silver, which is too little noted, is that it makes it harder to induce 
many who could otherwise invest, to enter into legitimate public and private 
enterprises. There is waiting ; there is distrust on every hand. Men do not 
know what the future has in store for them. This is particularly observable 
in cities which are endeavoring to sell their bonds to make public improve- 
ments. Many cities anticipate the collection of taxes for the purpose of 
making public improvements. The very threat of free silver is stopping the 
sale of city bonds in every part of the country. This loss falls with pecu- 
liar force upon laborers everywhere. Cities can ordinarily make improve- 
ments if they can borrow money ; if they can not borrow money, they can 
not make improvements ; if they do not make improvements, hundreds 
and thousands of laboring men who depend upon that class of work for 
their daily bread are deprived of employment. During the hard times of 
the past three years, many of our cities have taken care of our unemployed 
by engaging in such public improvements, but this is now brought to a 
sudden stop and is entailing further loss to laborers, and adding distress to 
their homes. Then again, men engaged in gi-eat productive enterprises find it 
difficult, if not quite impossible, in times like the present, to secure enough 
money to conduct their business. Men will not part with their money unless 
they have reasonable assurance of its safe return. The trouble is that dis- 
trust is everywhere present. Confidence has been displaced by fear and appre- 
hension. The whole business world is awaiting the settlement of the question of 
public and private honesty. (Cries of 'Right,' 'Right,' and cheers.) "When 
that^is rightly settled on the side of conscience and good morals, confidence will 
come again, and with it money will circulate and business activity will appear. 
Let it be once established that our monetary standard is not to be changed, that 
we are not so be put upon a silver basis, not to adopt the Mexican system of 
finance, but are to continue the present basis with gold, silver and pa- 
per — all equal, credit which is practically more than the capital of this 
and e-vjery other country, will be reinstated and we will once more, in my 
judgment, enter upon a greater era of prosperity. (Great applause.) My 
fellow citizens, I thank you for your coming this morning. I appreciate 
more than I can tell you this visit, on such an inclement day, on the part 
of so many Republicans [and other citizens, to testify their devotion to the 
Republican cause and to pledge their assurance of support to the Republican 
ticket, in the present canvass. This year, as in every crisis in the history of the 
country, men of all parties are uniting together. Men who have been Democrats, 
men who have belonged to other political parties in the past, loving their country 
and its honor more than they love party, are with us this year. We welcome 
them all, and standing together I am quite sure that on the third day of Novem- 
ber the verdict will teach the whole world that the American people love hon- 
esty, and that the American government will maintain _it3 financial honor at 
any cost." (Great applause.) 



303 



McKINLEY'S SPEECHES liN OCTOBER. 



LOYAL REPUBLICANS FROM PORTAGE. 

Portage County, Ohio, sent four train loads of people to Canton on Thurs- 
day, October 1st, with greeting and congratulations for Ma jor McKinlet. The 
first to arrive came on the 10:26 Fort Wayne train, and composed a small party 
from Edinburg, Atwater, Deerfield and other points in the southern part of 
the county, not convenient to the lines running special trains. This part^ vras 
conducted to the Tabernacle to await the otliers. The first special train arrived 
over the Cleveland, Canton and Southern Eailroad at 11 :20 and consisted of 
nine coaches. It brought people from Ravenna and vicinity. A few minutes 
later another special brought the contingent from Aurora, Garrettsville and 
contiguous territory. A special bearing delegations from Kent and Mogadore 
was the last to arrive. The Atwater Band, the Post Band of Kent, the 
Mcintosh Post, G. A. R. Drum Corps, and the Junior Drum Corps of Havenna 
came with the delegations. The Various clubs brought banners bearing their 
names and appropriate campaign mottoes were eai'ried. The men for the most 
part wore gold colored caps. The delegations were well organized, and, in 
spite of a drizzling rain, the majority of the two thousand or more visitors, 
including two clubs of women, made a short parade through the business center 
of the city before returning to the Tabernacle, where IMajor MoKixley received 
their greetings. Hon. S. P. "Wolcott made the introductory address at the 
Tabernacle, as follows: 

"Major McKixlby: The Republicans of Portage County have come witli 
greetings to you under your own roof tree, but we are equally glad to meet you 
in tabernacle or tent, in sunshine or storm, and we are prepared to endure a 
little inclement weather now, for I mistrust the refrain of our Democratic 
brethren will run something like this in November next : 

"Tlie melanclioly days have come, the saddest of the year. 
With ■wailing "winds and naked Avoods and meadows brown and sear, 
Heaped in the hollow of the grove, the withered "pops" lie dead. 
They rustle 'neath our joyous feet, to our McKlnley tread. ' 

Now don't mistake the author of this verse — it was Bryant. notBiiYAX "We 
come bringing messages of supreme confidence in and great personal love and 
regard for you. We come, also, with the message of assurance from that sec- 
tion of Ohio famous for large majorities, that the Republicans in November 
will be found loyal to the party of splendid achievements, loyal to their country's 
highest welfare, and therefore loyal to you. We come also congratulating our- 
selves that so many of us enjoy an intimate personal acquaintance witli you, 
and that your name is the nearest and dearest to the hearts of the American 
people on the first day of October, A. D. 1896." 

Senator AVolcott then traced the growth and achievements of the Rex^ubli- 
can party, and referred to the career of Major McKixlky in eloquent terms. 
He concluded as follows: "The one great issue in this campaign can be stated 
in a single sentence. We are in favor of maintaining a monetary policy where 
every dollar, whether gold, silver or paper, shall be worth one hundred cents 
each — not alone in America, but in all the great commercial centers of the 
world — on the Thames, the Tiber, the Seine, in the Orient if you jilease, every- 

304 



where and anywhere the foot of civilized man touches the earth. That is Re- 
publican money. That is tlie kind of money your administration will stand for, 
and be for. Any dollar worth less than that is Bryau money. We ai-e not a 
people given to repudiation, but the Bryan dollar will be repudiated in Novem- 
ber next by tlie American people. So will the platform that produced it, and 
so, too, wall tlie man who stands upon it ; his fall will be great, for he says he 
stands all over it. In conclusion let me say, that we confidently believe and 
expect that your first term will witness the end of a most eventful centiu-y and 
also the morning of the new, which will bring with it greater possibilities to 
this tbe greatest Republic on the earth, and also greater responsibilities to him 
who shall occupy the highest ofRce in the gift of any people. May that God, 
who holds the Bepublie in his hand, be your guide and strength in the discharge 
of those high duties which we believe a gi-ateful people are about to call you to. 
The Bepublicans of Portage are prepared to shout 'All hail I' to President 

MoKlNLBY.'* 



Major McKinley's Response, 

"Senator WoLOOTT, Ladies AXD Gentlemen and Fellow Citizens: I am 
truly glad to meet and welcome my old friends and fellow citizens of Portage 
County. (Aijplause.') That you should have paid me a Yisit on this most 
uncomfortable and inclement day in such large numbers, is botli reassuring and 
impressive. (Renewed apx>lause.) I have looked into your faces many times 
before. I have felt your warm hand clasps. (Cheers,) I have realized 
from my own experience your masterly power when once ai'oused in a 
political contest, and have shared in the honor of a great victory in which you 
performed a noble part. (Cries of 'We will do it again, Major,' followed by 
tremendous cheering and waving of hats.) We propose in this contest to pro- 
tect the money of the United States from debasement, and by the same vote 
we propose to protect American labor from the competition of the cheaper 
labor of the old world. (Great cheering and cries of * Hurrah for MoKinley.') 
I thank you for this hearty greeting and splendid demonstration. Your si)okes- 
man has most eloquently referred to tlie dangers of the past through w'hich we 
have been mercifully spared, and spoken hopefully of the future. In the great 
contests of the past, both in war and in peace, the Republican Party has done 
proud and conspicuous service for the cause of liberty, honor, justice and truth. 
(Applause.) Let us preserve her splendid example. (Great applause and cries 
of 'We will.') The issues of tlie present campaign, quite as distinctly as any of 
the great campaigns of tlie past, devolve upon every American citizen a most 
important duty. Our contention this year appeals to the best aspirations of 
American citizenship and involves, just as certainly as any contest in the past 
ever involved, the honor and good faith of the country. We can not close our 
eyes to the fact that if by our ballots we lower the credit of the Government, 
repudiate its honest obligations, wholly or partially, or deliberately depreciate 
a vast amount of its currency, we have aimed a blow at its hitherto unsullied 
name and honor. My fellow citizens, will we permit the name and honor of 
this great American Nation to be sullied or tainted ? (Loud cries of *No, 
never.') Your spokesman has well said that the United States never repudiat- 
ed any obligation that it had by exijressed terms or implication honestly enter- 
ed into; and I agree with him, as I am sure the great majority of our fellow 
citizens everywhere will agree, that it never will. (Great applause.) This is 
the year to settle for all time that our National honor will not and can not be 

305 



tainted.. (Applause and cries of 'Tliat's right.') 2so State of the Union should 
ever declare for a financial policy that encourages the violation of contracts, 
the repudiation of debts, or tlie debasement of our circulating medium. It 
should be the common aim and pride of all, that we are Americans, and intciul 
at all hazards, and at all times, to preserve American integrity and credit and 
uphold XI ublic law. (Great cheering.) You come from a section of Ohio very 
near and dear to me ; one that has been distinguislied in its history from the 
very beginning as standing foi* tlie highest type of American citizenship, and 
the highest ideals in government, (applause) for having exacted of its public 
servants the most scrupulous regard for good failh and good morals in every 
law and public transaction. (A^-; lause.) A duty devolves upon you in the 
pending campaign, which I am sure you will with scrupulous fidelity perform, 
and maintain your high standai-d of the past. (A;)plause and cries of ' "We 
will.') The grand old "Western Eeserve is full of patriotic recollections. It h 
the home of Giddixgs, ofU^ADE, of Gakfield, (gi-eat applause) and tlie home Of 
the best type of Ecxjublicanism (cheers); the civilization that has produced 
many of the Republican leaders of thought, (applause) who have occupied the 
very outposts of human liberty in the days of the past. (A^iplause.) That 
grand old "Western Eeserve must roll up such a Eejjublican rnajority in Isovem- 
ber as it has never before recorded, (great cheering) and once more demon- 
strate its patriotism and love of country. (Eencwed cheering.) Kever has the 
Eepublican cause more clearly appealed to conscience and intelligence than 
now. The patriotism for which you are so justly celebrated must not be 
abated. (Applause and cries of "It won't be.') The strong, clear voice of your 
peojjle which has been heai-d so distinctly in past crisis must again resound 
throughout the Nation in thunder tones for truth, Justice, honor and integrity. 
(Great cheering.) Your glorious past appeals to you to abate no effort because 
the tide of public opinion seems strongly in your favor. On the contrary, let 
that be tlie greater inducementfor extraordinary efforts ; it wiU not do this year 
to win a mere victory, but a victory triumjjhant enough to be worthy of the cause 
for which we stand. (Great applause and cries of ''Eight, right.') Onthequestion 
of protection and free trade you have already made a splendid record in the 
decisive campaigns of the past three years. It is to me an interesting recollec- 
tion fliat eighteen years ago, when your county was a part of iny Congi-essional 
district, we were fighting for the sameprincix^les which are engaging the coun- 
try now. You will remember we were contending then for an American pro- 
tective tariff that should care for all American interests ; for the resumption of 
specie payments — for honest, full, one hundred-cent dollars. (Enthusiastic 
cheering, and cries of ''Wliat's the matter with McKixxev ?') Then it was you 
gave me, your standard bearer, the largest majority that you ever gave any 
candidate in time of peace. (Tremendous cheering and cries of '"We will do i( 
Mgain.') Kow, in the year 1896, let there be a similar, aye, a stronger verdict 
in favor of protection, reciprocity, sound money and Kational lionoi*. (Great 
applause.) I thank you, my fellow citizens, most heartily for this call. JFen 
and women this year are alike interested in the rightful settlement of these 
great questions. I bid you welcome to my home and trust tliat you will all 
cai-ry with you to yoiu* homes that spirit which you have shown here to-day — n, 
spirit that i^ invincible." (Great cheering.) 



3oe 



THE CLARK COUNTY DELEGATION. 

The Clarke County McKinley Brigade reached Canton on a Cleveland, 
Canton and Southern special shortly before 2 o'clock, Thursday, October 1st, 
and numbered about five hundred people. The "Heavy Weight McKinley 
Club," "The Every Day Club" and the "McKinley Six Footers," of Spring- 
field, formed part of the delegation, which also included many unorgan- 
ized voters and a number of women. The Springfield Cadet Band headed the 
procession. Old gold banners on the cars read : "Clarke County McKinley 
Brigade;" "We'll put him in; Eight will win; McKinley is the man." 
"Heavy Weight McKinley club." Banners carried in the parade read : "Free 
silver too thin, so we can't vote him in," with cartoon. "McKinley Six 
Footers," "Two hundred members good and stout ; the Dems and Pops we're 
sure to put to rout." "40,000 pounds for McKinley — not one ounce for Bryan." 
"McKinley or Bust— We give the subject great weight." Jonx C. Baenbtt, 
Vice-President, was in charge of the Every Day Club, and E. B. Hoover com- 
manded the brigade. After a short parade the party went to the Tabernacle 
where Major McKinley joined them. While the meeting was organizing the 
band played the "Star Spangled Banner," then some one caught up a flag and 
waved it, and the crowd was set wild with enthusiam, the cheering continuing 
for some time. When Major McKinley appeared the Brigade arose and gave 
him a salute. Mr. Barnett, as master of ceremonies, introduced Judge John 
C. Miller as spokesman for the party. Judge Miller said in part : ^ 

"Major McKinley: In the frequent pilgrimages of the people to Canton 
this year, there has been poured upon your ears such a flood of oratory of all 
kinds, that it is not my purpose to inflict upon you any extended remarks. 
to-day. After having fixed up our fences at home and so perfected our organi- 
zation that everything is in good running order, including our opponents on 
the other side of the fence, a detachment of the Clarke County McKinley 
Brigade has taken a day off, and come to visit you and to report the situation 
in our part of the battle-field ; and, after having done so, we expect to return to 
our posts without further orders from you as our Commander-in-Chief. We 
know our duty and will perform it. Our report is brief . The Republicans in 
little Clarke are all in line, shoulder to shoulder, with no stragglers worth 
mentioning. We gave Governor Bushnell 2,000 plurality over the Democrats 
last fall, and we expect to give you as great a plurality over the combined 
forces of Chicago Convention Democrats and St. Louis Populists. We come 
to-day as much out of respect to yourself personally, whom we have known so 
long and so well, as out of respect to the principles you advocate, of sound, 
money, protection to American industry and treaties of reciprocity. AVe know 
that the delights of home are'far more precious to you than all the entice- 
ments of ambition, and hence we did not ask you to come to us, but have come 
to you." 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" Mr. Chairman, Judge Miller and My Fellow Citizens : It gives me ex- 
treme pleasure to meet at my home to-day the representative citizens of 
Springfield and Clarke County. I would not undertake to enumerate the clubs 
present here lest I might omit some of them, but all are welcome. I have long 
since known that there was nothing small about the people of Springfield and 
Clarke County, and I never stand before a Springfield audience without having 

307 



come unbidden to my lips some of the precious names associated with that en- 
terprising city. Shellabarger was not only a distinguished lawyer, but an 
eminent statesman ; and that dear old citizen, Judge "White, whose learning 
enriched the judiciary of the State — names like those come to me whenever I 
see a Springfield audience. It is not given to many cities to have furnished, as 
yours has done, as distinguished a soldier and as valued a statesman as the ex- 
Speaker of the National House of Representatives, General J. "VVarrex Keifer. 
(Applause.) Nor is it given to many cities to have furnished, as yours has, such a 
splendid ideal business man and distinguished Executive, the present Governor 
of Ohio, Asa S. Bushnell. (Applause.) Mr. Cyrus M. McCormick, of Chicago, 
who is at the head of one of the great harvesting machine companies, the 
strength and integrity of which the country is familiar with, recently wrote as 
follows : 'We have never before been so at a loss to lay out our plans and work 
for the next season as we are at this time. If we thought that the country 
would go for the unlimited coinage of silver we would not wish to run our shops 
at more than one-half their capacity.' We have in that stateonent, my fellow 
citizens, a description of oiu* business troubles, and it teaches a striking lesson 
which must impress every thinking man. The manufacturer does not know 
how to plan for next year's business because of the financial uncertainty created 
by the attitude of part of one of the great political parties of the country, in 
combination with two other parties. If free silver is to be inaugurated in this 
country it will change all values, disarrange the relation of labor to production, 
of raw material to the finished product, and unsettle all conditions of existing 
business and prosperity. This uncertainty makes every business man pause ; 
makes ^very business enterprise halt ; and while they pause and halt the home 
of every a-^ .irkingman is filled with despair. Capital hesitates to invest because 
it sees danger ahead and is unable to count with certainty upon either the safety 
of its principal or the return of profits , and while capital waits outside the fac- 
tory, the machinery within is silent, labor is unemployed, and poverty presides 
about the firesides of the men who toiL I do not know how many hands the 
great firm of McCormick & Co. employs, but many thousands, I am sure; but 
when he states that if we have free coinage of silver they would not run their 
shops with more than one-half the labor now employed, I assume that what 
would be true in the case of one of the harvesting machine companies of Chicago 
would be true of every harvesting machine concern, in Springfield and through- 
out the country. Take your own city, which has heretofore been one of the 
busiest centers in the manufacture of agricultural implements, employing 5,000 
laborers, as it once did. (Great laughter and applause.) To cut that emploj^ment 
in two would be not only a calamity to labor, but would be a calamity to every 
interest in your city and to every farmer in your county. Your business fairly 
illustrates the close relation between the manufacturer and the agricultural 
producer. When you are prosperous, the farmer is prosperous. AVhen the 
farmer is prosperous, you have your most profitable trade. If your pay-roUs 
should be reduced one-half, the effect would be injuriouslyfelt by every agricul- 
turist in your county, and the injury thus inflicted upon him would offset the 
machine works, because your customers, who are farmers, would suffer from 
the diminished labor you would employ due to the loss of a part of their 
home market. Isn't that true, my fellow citizens of Springfield ? (Loud cries 
of 'Yes, yes.') Business of every character is so interwoven, so dependent and 
interdependent upon other lines of business that hurt to the one is harm to tlie 
other. In 1892 people used to think you could hurt the manufacturer and lielp 
the rest of mankind. (Laughter. ) They harbor no such delusion now. Demand 

308 



is what makes business activity. The sickle and the flail would still be In use 
but for the pressing demand of the gi-eat grain fields of America. You make 
agricultural implements because the farmers want them, but when they do not 
take tliom you will not make as many, and when that time comes you diminish 
your output, you do not require so much labor, and that is wiiat makes poverty 
and idleness. My fellow citizens, we must have stability in values and confi- 
dence in National and individual integrity before we can have real and perma- 
nent prosperity. We must have confidence that our revenue legislation will 
supply adequate money for the public treasury and protect American labor and 
American interests in every part of the country. Alexander Hamilton once 
said : 'There is scarcely any point in the economy of National affairs of greater 
moment than the uniform preservation of the intrinsic value of the money unit. 
On this the security and steady value of property essentially depends.' We 
must get over the idea, my fellow citizens, if we ever had it, that there is any 
legerdemain in finance, that Congi-ess, by its mere breath can make something 
out of nothing ; that it can decree that fifty-two cents' worth of silver shall be 
w^orth one hundred cents. Congress can do much. It can protect the lives and 
property of citizens, as it should do ; it can provide revenue laws, which will 
make the Treasury easy and protect American producers from the unrestrained 
competition of the old world. It could do that and it must do that. (Tremen- 
dous cheering.) But it can not, by its mere stamp, make a dollar worth a hun- 
dred cents out of a piece of coin w^hich sells in every market of the world for 
fifty-two cents. We want for our country a dollar worth a dollar. The great 
Senator from New York, Eoscoe Coxkling, once said : ' I do not believe you 
can legislate up the value of anything any more than I believe you can make all 
generals heroes by legislation. The Continental Congress tried legislating 
values up, by resort to penalties, but the inexorable laws of trade, as independ- 
ent as the laws of gravity, kept them down.' Good credit and good currency 
are as indispensable to labor as to capital, and he who teaches any other doctrine 
is an enemy of our country's prosperity. Good currency gives protection to 
labor and to every American interest as a wise protective tariff gives protection- 
to American workshops and to the Amerijcan farmer. We have good money 
now. There is no better to be found anywhere in the w^orld. The Re- 
publican Party, since 1879, has made every dollar of our currency as good as 
gold, and for seventeen years has kept it so, and it means to keep it so if the 
people of this country restore it to power again. We wiU not consent to the 
contraction of the currency of the country by putting ourselves upon a silver 
basis and driving from the channels of trade and the currents of business the 
good gold dollars and the good paper dollars which this country has to-day. We 
do not propose to have the United States confined to the use of silver alone. 
We mean to keep our gold, our silver and our paper, and to keep each and every 
form of American money worfli one hundred cents on the dollar. Judge Miller 
spoke of the veterans of the war, who are here to testify their devotion to the 
Republican cause. I am glad to meet them. Listen to what their old Com- 
mander, General Grant, said in his inaugural address March 4, 1869. I wish 
it might be carried away in the lieart of every man in this audience, and I 
wish it might be heard and heeded by every patriot in the land. This is his^ 
language : ' To protect the National honor every dollar of Government indebt- 
edness should be paid in gold unless otherwise expressly provided for. Let it 
be understood that no repudiator of one farthing of our public debt will be 
trusted in a public place, and it will go far toward strengthening a credit that 
should be the best in the world.' This is where the Republican Party put our 

309 



credit, and it is where the Hepublican Party means to keep it. (Great cheer- 
ing.) Having settled the currency question on the side of honesty, as we will 
settle it this year, we will then make a tariff, an American tariff, a protective 
tariff, which will provide against deficiencies in the public Treasury and be 
strong enough to uphold the American factory and preserve the American 
market for the American people. I thank you and bid you good afternoon." 
(Cheers and applause.) 

WEST VIRGINIA AND OHIO. 

Farmers and other citizens of the West Virginia Pan Handle and the 
delegation representing Huron and Seneca counties, Oliio, starting from 
Plymouth, arrived Friday, October 2nd, at so nearly the same hour that the 
two crowds were merged into one meeting in the Tabernacle. The AVest 
Virginians arrived on a special Cleveland, Canton and Southern train about 
12:30 several hundred in number, A large crowd was left behind, a wash- 
out having cut off from tlie starting point at Wheeling all west of that point. 
The train was held an hour to make a transfer if possible, but to no avail. Part of 
those left behind succeeded in reaching Canton via tlie Wheeling and Lake Erie 
and its connections. The delegation was accompanied by the Sherrard Band. 
The Ohio delegation arrived over the Valley soon after. This delegation num- 
bered about five hundred people and was accompanied by a band. They marched 
directly to the Tabernacle, arriving before Major McKinley appeared to greet 
the first arrivals. The introductions and addresses of both parties were made 
before Major McKinley spoke. Mr. C. H. Henxing presented the West 
Virginians with the assurance that the state would give 15,000 Republican 
plurality, and said that the seed of Republicanism sown two years ago had 
taken root and was bearing fruit plentifully. He introduced Hon. T. M. Gar- 
vin, an attorney of Wheeling, and candidate for the State Legislature as 
spokesman. Mr. Garvin said: 

"Never before in the history of our politics has the home city of a candi- 
date for the chief office of the Government been honored by so many pilgrim- 
ages of the Nation's citizens. To-day Canton is one of the most famous cities 
in our country. Fi'om the Golden Gate of the Pacific to the historic coast of 
the Atlantic, from the sun-kissed gulf plains of the south to the giant pine 
forests of the north, thousands of patriotic citizens of our common country 
have been journeying to this, your beautiful city, during the past few weeks." 
Mr. Garvin then spoke of the marvelous change which the past four years 
had vrrought, telling of how in Wheeling, where in 1892, unprecedented pros- 
perity was enjoyed, "the smoke-stacks are but cold monuments of our destroyed 
industries and of our prosperity." He referred briefly to the changes which have 
been experienced by the farmers and the injury done the wool industry by the 
present administration, and read from the accounts of a prominent dealer 
showing the extent of the suffering in this particular product. In concluding 
he said : * 'I am glad to state that the prospects of electing you are so flutter- 
ing that the wool industry has already taken on new life. Our farmers are 
now talking of increasing their flocks so that they will have some wool to sell 
as soon as the tariff on the product is restored. It affords me unbounded 
pleasure, Major McKinley, to be able to present to you this representative 
body of West Virginia farmers, who have journeyed hitlier to give assurance 
of their faith in the doctrines of the Republican Party and in you, its standard 
bearer. We come from a mountain State whose agricultural interests are as 

310 



Urge as the most of our sister States and have in common with them experi- 
enced the disasters which have attended all the industries in the land during 
the present Administration." 

Mr. AV. T, Francis spoke on behalf of the Railway Men's Sound Money 
Club, the McKiNLEY and Hobart Club of Chicago Junction and the people of 
Huron county. He said they had brought but a representation of the clubs ; 
the vast majority of them were obliged to remain at home to look after busi- 
ness and work . He said they had not much business now, and that it took close 
figuring with what little there was to make both ends meet. 

F. "W. KiRTLAXD spoke on behalf of the people of Plymouth and Seneca 
county. He assured Major McKinley of hearty support in the territory 
which they represented. 

When Major McKinley arose to speak the Tabernacle was well filled, 
there being between 1,200 and 1,500 people present. He made a very earnest 
address, responding to the greetings of all. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" Ladies AND Gentlemen AND My Fellow Citizens: It gives me especial 
pleasure to greet at my home in a joint meeting, the citizens of the State of 
West Virginia and my own native State. A Republican has no embarrassment 
in speaking to an American audience. He does not have to make a different 
speech for a different locality. (Laughter and applaiise.) What he would say 
to the people of West Virginia, or any other State of the South, he could say in 
Sew England, in the Middle West or on the Pacific Coast, for the principles of 
the Republican Party are as ISTational as our !^ig. (Applause. ) Their purposes 
embrace the good of every American interest and every section. (Applause.) 
The great thought of the people of this country, wherever they may reside or 
whatever may be their occupations, is how we are to get back as a Nation to 
the old conditions of business activity and prosperity. Something has gone 
wrong. We have the same country ; we have the same men ; the same mines ; 
the same manufactories; the same money; the same splendid genius, among 
our people that we had between 1880 and 1892, but we have not the same degree 
of prosperity now that we had then. (Applause and cries of 'Tliat's right.') 
And what is the trouble ? (A voice, 'Free trade,' followed by great applause.) 
In' a single expression, the trouble with the country is a lack of confidence. 
As to what has brought about that lack of confidence we may differ, but that 
there is a lack of confidence every citizen everywhere must concede, for every 
citizen has felt it in his own trade and experience. Now what is this thing 
called 'business confidence ?' It is a belief in the stability of values, faith in 
our market and our money, faith that the consumption of next year will be as 
great as or greater than the present one ; faith that men will have work, and that 
the currency of the country will be fixed and staple, and undepreciating in 
Talue. (Great applause.) The merchant has confidence — when? Some 
merchants may be in this audience to-day. The merchant has confidence when 
he stocks his shelves with more goods in expectation of larger sales. The man- 
ufacturer has confidence when he increases his machinery, hires more men, 
adds a new factory, lays in material in advance, certain that it will not decline 
before his finished product is sold; confident that he can pay good wages to 
labor and fair prices for his raw material, and not find in the end that his goods 
will be driven out of the American inarket by foreign goods, under a free trade 
policy. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'That's the talk.') The laborer 

311 



feels this confidence when, assured of steady employment, he buys a lot and 
starts the building of a house for himself and family (Great apj)lause.) The 
farmer feels this confidence when he plants generously, confident that what he 
reaps will be in demand and bring him a fair return for his toil. (Renewed 
applause.) The railroad company feels it when it extends its lines and its 
switches, gets new equipment, and increases its pay rf)ll. The banker feels it 
when he loans freely of his capital and deposits and knows that when his loans 
are returned they will be n good sound money. (Great applause.) And the 
depositor feels this confidence when he takes his money from its hiding place — 
where much of it is to-day — and puts it in a bank, sure that he can draw it out 
according to his necessity or inclination, in as good money as he put in (Great 
cheering.) This thing called 'business confidence' has never shut up an Ameri- 
can mill ; never reduced wages or curtailed employment ; never refused loans ; 
never got up a run on a bank ; never stopped a mine ; never created idleness 
among laboring men. Applause.) When confidence is present with us the 
sheriff has less to do (great laughter and applause) and advertises fewer forced 
sales. (Renewed applause.) The court docket registers fewer judgments; 
public charity is less invoked and the 'free soup' house is unknown and unnec- 
essai'y. (Tremendous cheering.) When confidence is shaken, misfortunes 
come not singly but in battalions, and suffering falls on every community. 
(Applause.) No part of our population is exempt. It may come from one thing 
or it may come from another. Doubt in the business world is death to business. 
(Applause and cries of 'That's right.') We have it now. We know the hour it 
came. (Great cheering.) We know what brought it. (Renewed cheering.) 
And I think we know how ■*"0 get rid of it. (Cheering and cries of 'You bet we 
do.') We have had it in the United States to a greater or less'degree from the 
moment it was settled in 1892 that our protective tariff laws were to be chang- 
ed. (Applause.) It continued until the changes were actually made and still 
longer until the people in 1894 elected a Republican National House of Repre- 
sentatives and made it impossible to cut deeper into the industries of our coun- 
try. (Great applause.) When the doubt of further changes had been thus 
removed, there came the realization of the destruction which that tariff law had 
done to some of our industries, entailing an injury felt in every State and com- 
munity of our country. Then following there was a loss to the Treasury from 
insufficient revenues under that legislation. Then the run on the gold reserve ; 
then bonds to make that gold reserve good ; then the obstruction in the Senate 
to any emergency legislation which would supply the loss of revenue entailed 
by that law ; and the very character of that resistance in the Senate to legisla- 
tion which would increase the revenues, only increased the uncertainty. (Ap- 
plause.) Then with all these burdens upon us, the Chicago platform with its 
reactionary provisions came to further fret the country. The effect of this 
platform upon the business world has been- characterized, not by Republicans 
alone, but by the old and trusted leaders of the Democratic Party, as a menace 
to every vested interest in the United States, revolutionary in character and 
directly leading to National dishonor and partial repudiation. (Great cheer- 
ing.) The people this year are engaged in a great National contest to restore 
the confidence so badly shaken by the succession of events which I have briefly 
named. In less than five weeks they will speak and make known tlieir decree. 
What will it be, men of Ohio and West Virginia ? (Cries of 'McKinley, IMcKin- 
LKY,' followed by tremendous cheering.) If the people shall with ringing and 
impressive voice declare four weeks from next Tuesday that the public credit 
shall not be lowered ; the National currency shall not be degraded ; the peace 

312 



and tranquility of this Government of law shall not be broken ; the revenues of 
the Treasury shall be no longer insufficient for the needs of the Government, 
and that the tariff shall not be longer inadequate to protect the American 
workshop and the American market, business activity will return; confidence 
will come back again ; courage will take the place of fear ; work will be resumed 
and prosperity will come to bless and benefit alL (Great applause and cries 
of 'That's so.') God grant the American people the wisdom to guide them in 
the right. (Great cheering.) I thank you, my fellow citizens, for this visit 
and wish you a safe return to yom* homes." (Great applause.; 



SIXTEEN TO ONE. 

Saturday, October 3rd, was another remarkable day in the campaign. It was 
notable for numerous delegations, the eizfi-of the crowds, for the wide range 
of territory represented, for the well-drilled gayly uniformed clubs, for hand- 
some banners and appropriate emblems proudly carried in parade. Harry B. 
Stewart, passenger agent of the Cleveland, Canton and Southern Eailroad re- 
ported that the seven special trains on that road had brought in over 3,800 
people. The Valley brought about the same number, and the sixteen 
special trains on the Fort "Wayne brought an enormous crowd equal 
in numbers. Besides the regular trains brought in delegations, and 
those who came by private conveyance were in themselves a nmnerous body. 
It is probable that 80,000 strangers were in the city during the'day. Besides 
these all Canton seemed to have turned out to the scene of the demonstrations. 
The crowd about the McKixley home was enormous all day and until long after 
dark. After the sp'eaking from the porch to the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and 
Sunday Creek Yalley, Ohio, crowds, the Buffalo wheelmen, the^tandard Manu- 
facturing Company's employes, of Pittsburg, and the Barberton, Ohio, people, 
the lawn became so densely packed that new delegations could scarcely be 
brought within hearing distance and in consequence a majority of the introduc- 
tory addresses and Major McKixley's sixteen responses were delivered from 
the reviewing stand which had been re-erected in anticipation of the bicycle 
parade. By utilizing this stand the speakers were in the center of the people 
who packed the lawn as far back as the house, the street on the north, the street 
on the east and far into the Bockixjs lawn on the south and into the lawns on 
the opposite side of Market street. 



THEY CAME EARLY. 

Early in the morning delegations began to come to Canton to see and hear 
Major McKixLEY. Before the sun rose a train load from the Keystone State 
arrived and prepared to have a day of pleasure in Canton. There were 400 in 
the Harrisburg delegation, under the auspices of the "Daily News." The 
visitors arrived at 5 o'clock over the Fort Wayne road and were escorted up 
town for breakfast. The second delegation came in at 7:15 o'clock, 
arriving at the Fort Wayne station from Athens County, Ohio. There were 
eight coaches with about 700 people, being the Sunday Creek delegation of 
McKinley and Hobart Clubs. Among them were the Trimble and Jacksonville 
McKinley Clubs and the Gloster Glee Club which included a double quartette 
of handsome young ladies. The McKinley and Hobart Drum Corps of Gloster 

313 



a..^ t^'B roiiville Band furnished marcliing music to ihe 'laLcruacle v%iiere Lke- 
glee clubs entertained the crowd while arrangements were being made to meet 
Major ;McKtxley. Every delegate carried a flag and there was a profusion of 
handsome and appropriate banners. 



PENNSYLVANIA AND OHIO. 

The McKinley lawn was again in good condition, the wnrm sunshine and 
stiff breezes having dried up the mud. Receptions of organized delegations 
were resumed there for the first time for a week. The small stand whici) 
was erected on the lawn for opening day, from which Major INIcKixlev reviewed 
the parade, was re- erected. The Harrisburg and Sunday Creek Valley people 
merged into one parade to visit Major McKinley, and shortly before nine o'clock 
had possession of the lawn. The crowd about the house at that early hour num- 
bered about 2,500. The Pennsylvanians were introduced by Captain William J. 
George, of the Harrisburg News. His addi*ess in part was as follows : 

"Major McKinlev : We, the citizens of the Capital City and central part of 
of the great manufacturing and mining State of Pennsylvania, have called ta 
pay our respects to you, whom we look upon as the great exponent of the 
principles of protection, sound money and stable government, which we be- 
lieve in. We believe those principles will be maintained by you when you are 
placed in the office — as you will be^of President of the grandest country on 
earth. We believe the millions of dollars now sent to foreign countries for the 
products of their "wool growers, their mines and their mills will be of great 
benf'fit to us and our country, if, by judicious tariff legislation, that monej can 
be kept at home. AVe also believe that the stringent times we are enduring are 
not through the lack of the volume of our circulating medium, but the lack of 
the opportunity to put it into circulation. AVe know there are millions of dol- 
lars idle, but also know to circulate that money and get our share is to get it in 
exchange for that which we have in our power to offer— that is labor and the 
products thereof. With the assurance that the grand old Keystone State will 
be heard from on the third of November in tones that will forever silence any 
one who may again attempt to bring upon us the miseries we have endured in 
the past three years; and that the best monetary system on earth will be 
acknowledged by all as such, we wish you success, and hope God may bless and 
guide you in carrying out the principles that you espouse and which we 
all love so dearly. Then our furnace fires will shine brightly again; our 
looms hum and spin; our miners sing songs of prosperity instead of wails 
of want ; and our farmers find the purchasing power for their products in the 
pockets of their best customers— the people who make up the greatest 
market in the world— the citizens of the United States. We have come a 
long distance to say this to you and assure you of our hearty support." 
(Great applause.) 

On behalf of the Athens County (Ohio) party Mr. .T. M. Allex, of Glouces- 
ter, spoke briefly, and in part as follows: 

"Major McKinlet: In the autumn of 1891, it fell to my lot to preside at a 
great mass meeting at Gloucester at which you were the chief speaker. You 
were introduced as the next Governor of Ohio and the next Republican Presi- 
dent of the United States. This sentiment met with the hearty approval of 
thousands then present and was vociferously applauded. The first part of the 

814 



prophecy has become a matter of history and we are here to-day from the 
Sunday Creek Valley and from General Gbosvbnor's Congressional district to 
take you once more by the hand bidding you godspeed, and to assure you of 
our hearty support and abiding and unbounded faith in Ohio's most illustrious 
son and gifted statesman, who on the third of next month under the guidance 
of Him who doeth all things well, by the will of the people of these United 
States, will be our President not in prophecy, but in fact." Mr. Allen then 
referred to the prosperity of his home town in 1892 and of the distress since> 
particularly of the suffering among miners two years later when State aid was 
invoked. Concerning the latter he said; "The mills, factories and furnaces 
of the country closed down and there was but little demand for the product of 
the miner. Work became poor, wages were reduced and paid in sixty day 
notes and many strikes followed in their turn, until gaunt and haggard hunger 
as it walked hand in hand with enforced idleness, stared the laboring people in 
the face and forced the cry from hundreds of honest and industrious men and 
women, 'Give us work, or give us bread.' It was at this supreme moment 
that from the great and philanthropic heart of Ohio's noble Governor, in re- 
sponse to appeals for aid, there came to the homes of destitution and suffering 
the welcome assurance that 'No man, woman or child within the State of Ohio, 
shall suffer for something to eat while I am Governor.' The appeal 
was not made in vain for as abundant as the rains of the tropics, 
fi'om every corner of this great commonwealth came ample supplies of food, 
clothing and money for the relief of the worthy though distressed laborers. Our 
delegation now before you is not composed of miners alone. Here are farmers 
physicians, merchants and others as well, who have a common purpose in ten- 
dering you this call, whose interests are mutual and dependent in a large 
measure upon the mining industry— the chief industry of the Sunday Creek 
Valley." (Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: It gives me very great pleasure to y-eceive at my 
home my fellow citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and State of 
Ohio. Whatever injuriously or beneficially affects the people of Pennsylvania 
alike affects the people of Ohio ; and 1 could not but be struck by the similarity 
of the messages which have come from your respective spokesmen as to the 
condition of the people in these two great States. How similar they are! It 
is the cry of disti-ess going up from every part of our common country. What 
men want is business activity. (Cries of 'That's the stuff.') What laboring 
men want is work. (Great applause and cries of 'True,' and 'Right.') We have 
discovered in the last three years and a half that we can not increase the output 
of the mines or the wages of the miner by decreasing manufacturing in the 
United States. (Applause and cries of 'Right,' 'Right'.) We have discovered 
that less American coal is required if we do any part of our work in Europe 
rather than here at home. (Great cheering and cries of 'That's right.'; 
I favor that policy which will give the largest development to every American 
interest, that gives the widest opportunity to every American citizen, that 
gives the most work and best wages to every American laborer, and secures 
to our people the highest possible prosperity in all their occupations. (Tre- 
mendous cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') I can not but appre- 
ciate most highly this visit, made at such inconvenience, and from such great 
distances, to my home. The messages which you bring me of your regard and 

315 



good will I shall always remember and cherish. It is with peculiar pleasure- 
that I welcome this club from the Capital City of the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania. (Applause.) Coming as you do from a city of great rolling mills and 
other manufactories, having a product in value of more than .H'-,0CHJ,00O 
annually, when your establishments are all running full time, and from one of 
the greatest manufacturing States of the country, I need hardly be told of the 
deep and profound interest which you have in the rightful settlement of the 
issues presented us in this campaign. Both of the leading issues are of 
sufficient importance to your industrial life and prosperity to command your 
unremitting labor and effort. Nor need I remind you that the issue which 
involves the restoration of our protective policy, unhappily and unwarrantedly 
abandoned in the Presidential campaign four years ago, is to be settled thi& 
year, as well as that other issue of continuing a safe monetary system, securing 
us the best money in the world, and guaranteeing to our people the use of all 
the forms of money now in circulation to be of equal value and purchasing 
power. (Great cheering.) The mistake of 1892 needs no elaboration. It has 
been felt and realized in every section of our common country, and this year 
is the first time since it was made that the whole people have had a chance to 
correct it. What will they do my fellow citizens of Ohio and Pennsylvania? 
(Cries of 'We'll elect McKinley,' followed by tremendous cheering.) For three 
years past the trade reviews of business — manufacturing, agricultural and mer- 
cantile, at the end of each quarter of the year could be readily summed up in a 
sentence— 'Prices all along the line have declined,' and with them the hope 
and comfort of the American people also declined. (Applause and cries 
of 'Right.') In 1895, Dun's Review of Trade reported twenty-five per cent, de- 
cline on iron and steel, thirty-seven per cent, on wool, twelve per cent, on cot- 
ton. It might have been supposed that bottom prices were then reached, but 
on March 14, 1896, the same excellent non-partisan Review, one of the standard 
authorities, made this report of the condition of the trade of the country, and I 
can not see that it has greatly changed from that time to this, and certainly 
there is little improvement or advance in prices generally : 'As prices about 
February 21 were on the whole the lowest every known in this country, con- 
siderable space is given this week to a comparison of quotations in the most im- 
portant branches of manufacture'— and then follows a lengthy table of vrhich T 
need only say that the table abundantly sustains its assertions and shoAv.s 
a most deplorable condition in all kinds of business. As a legitimate result wv 
never knew so many failures as in 1895. We had hoped that things would take 
'a turn for the better,' but they have not, although I am sure that such is the 
wish of the American people t(5-day, and the earnest and sincere aim of thf> 
Republican Party. But such a condition seems impossible under our present 
revenue legislation. I will not pursue the distressing record further. Never 
has business been poorer; never has industrial distress been gi-eater; never 
has the enterprise and progress of the country been so retarded as during th»^ 
low tariff, or no tariff years of 1894-96. in all our history. (Applause and cries 
of 'Right'.) And the Government has fared little better. The Treasury 
reports have recorded monthly deficiencies, monthly additions to public 
debt— and the deficiencies still continue. Will any one say in the presence of 
such facts that the revenue legislation of the country must remain unchanged ; 
that it is not the plain and palpable duty of the Government to provide ade- 
quate revenue for the public Treasury, and protect American labor against 
the cheaper labor of the Old World? (Great cheering. ) Government expendi- 
tures must not exceed Government receipts. (Cries of 'That's right.') The 

316 



creation of a public debt in time of peace is only justified in sustaining the" 
credit of the Government and the public honor, but it should not be continued 
a moment longer than Congress, whose duty it is to raise revenue, shall make 
provision to supply it. (Applause and cries of 'That's the stuff.') \ No one has 
suffered more under these conditions than the farmers of the United States. 
(Applause and cries of 'Right you are.') They have lost much by a dimin- 
ished home market, and have suffered in the foreign market by the repeal of 
the reciprocity provisions of the tariff law of 1890. The foreign market opened 
by reciprocity during the administration of President Harrison (applause) must 
be opened and the home market must be improved and preserved to the 
American farmer, (cries of 'That's right' ) while the American workshop must 
be opened to the American workingman. (Great cheering.) No patriotic citi- 
izen should object to regaining and then holding our proud rank of the greatest 
manufacturing, mining and farming nation of the world. (Applause.) With mo 
the necessity of the restoration of a judicious and wise American tariff policy 
is a firm conviction, second to nothing in importance except the preservation of 
law and order, which we must have (great cheering) of justice and domestic 
tranquility, and the preservation of our credit, our currency and our National 
honor, (Great applause and cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') My fellow citizens, we 
must defeat by decisive majorities every scheme for the debasement of our cur- 
rency, whether it be free silver or irredeemable paper money; (great applause) 
but while we do this we must also defeat the destructive and dangerous menace 
of free trade. (Renewed applause.) We have lost enough already in the re- 
duced wages of our labor, and we do not propose to be further cheated by being 
paid in depreciated dollars. (Tremendous cheering.) Let us effectually dis- 
pose of both, and restore to the country the great business prosperity which is 
naturally and properly ours to possess and enjoy. (Great applause.) I am glad, 
my fellow citizens, to meet you all here to-day. I am glad to meet my friends 
from Pennsylvania and my old friends from Athens County, Ohio. 
What you, and they, and all of us want in this country is the restora- 
tion of that public confidence which will set the wheels of industry in motion 
and give employment to every man in the land." (Great cheering and cries of 
"Hurrah for McKinley.") 

BUFFALO WHEELMEN. 

The McKinley Wheelmen, of Buffalo, arrived in Canton at 10:30 Saturday, 
October 3rd,in a special train of eighteen coaches, over the Cleveland, Canton and 
Southern Railroad. The club was attractively uniformed and accompanied by 
an excellent bugle corps of six pieces. The Reception Committee and a number 
of local wheelmen welcomed the New Yorkers, and they were escorted through 
the business portion of the city, receiving great applause everywhere, c While 
not as large in numbers as some of the other delegations, the Buffalo people 
properly felt proud of it. They went to the McKinley home in advance of the reg- 
ular wheelmen's demonstration. They brought three homing pigeons to carry 
back a message to their city and assembled on the lawn while Major 
McKixLEY greeted them. The party was introduced by Capt. H. P. Cubtis 
-and Frank B. Steele. Major McKinley had the following message prepared, 
a copy of which was attached to each bird : 

Canton, Ohio, October 3, 1896. 
The Wheelmen's McKinley and Hobart Republican Club, of Buffalo, N. Y., 
arrived this morning and request me to send their greetings to friends at 
home, in which I beg to join. William McKinlbt. 

317 



The messages were addressed to the evening papers of Buffalo, and iMis. 
McKiNLEY released the pigeons. 



riajor McKinley's Response. 

"Gentlemen: It gives me great pleasure to welcome you. I am sure you 
will excuse me from doing more than making acknowledgment of this gen- 
erous call and the assurance which you bring of your regard and good will. Later 
In the day I am to address the wheelmen, generally, who pay me a visit, and I 
hope to have the pleasure of meeting you at that time. (Applause.) At the re- 
quest of your committee I have prepared a little message which is to be sent 
back by the carrier pigeons which you have brought with you from Buffalo." 
(Three cheers were then given for McKinlby. ) 



MANUFACTURERS FROM PITTSBURQ. 

The McKinley Club of the Standard Manufacturing Company of Pittsburg 
and Allegheny City, arrived over the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago 
Railroad at 10:30 o'clock Saturday, October 3rd. It required eight coaches 
to accommodate the visitors, who numbered about six hundred person. s. 
The Torrence Band accompanied the party. As they pulled into the station 
three rousing cheers were given. The coaches were all elaborately decorated 
with streamers containing the name of the Company. Each visitor was 
decorated with a badge of pale blue with a picture of Major McKinley and 
the name of the organization. Banners with protection and sound money 
epigrams floated to the breezes. Feank J. Torrence and J. W. Arrod had 
charge of the delegation. The Canton Troop and Escort Committee met the 
delegation and led the way to the home of Major McKinley. In the parade 
a novel attraction was a magnificent bath tub manufactured at the Standard 
works. The delegation was given audience on the lawn at about 11 o'clock. 
The introduction and presentation was made by F. J. Torrence, an employe 
of the company. "These men" he said, "have come as living objects of what 
protection does for American workingmen and American industries. "We 
are all for McKinley, now, although many of us have heretofore been members 
of other parties." In the midst of this reception the Barberton delegation 
<;ame up and mingled with the crowd. 



Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: It is very gratifying to me to have abotit my 
house this large delegation from the Standard Manufacturing Company, of 
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It gives me extreme pleasure to welcome 
you, and to receive from your spokesman assurances of good will and 
support of the great principles for which by the partiality of a great political 
party, I stand this year. I am glad to note from what Mr. Torrence has si-.id 
that in the audience before me to-day are men who have hitherto belonged 
toother political orgr zations. Democrats, as well as Republicans, are inter- 
ested in the welfare and prosperity of our common country. (Applause.) We 
can not have suffering among us, we can not have depression, we can not have 
idleness, without all portions of our population feeling it, no matter to what 

318 



political party they may belong. And this year, unlike many years of the 
past, the ticket is commanding not the support of Republicans merely, but the 
support of all parties all over the land. Men are thinking infinitely more of 
their country and its prosperity than they are thinking of "any political organ- 
ization. What we want, and what we mean to do in this country, is first 
of all to keep our money good. (Great cheering.) Every dollar of it, whether 
paper, silver or gold, shall be worth fully one hundred cents, and be worth 
exactly that sum, whether it is in the hands of the banker, or the hands of the 
laborer. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and three cheers.) We not only propose to 
keep our money good, but we propose to keep our word good with every 
creditor of the Government. (Tremendous applause.) And, my fellow citizens, 
we propose, in so far as legislation will do it — wise, judicious, American legisla- 
tion — to restore good wages to American workingmen. (Vociferous cheering.) 
I am glad to receive from the employes of the Standard Manufacturing Com- 
pany this splendid specimen of their handiwork. I am glad, my fellow citizens, 
always to receive any token of regard from the men who labor. (Continuous 
applause.) Labor is the foundation of wealth. (Cries of 'That's so' and 'You are 
right.') It is the foundation of progress and prosperity, and when the labor 
of any country is unemployed, then that country suffers in every department of 
industry. (Cheering and cries of 'That's right.') What we want is to protect 
the American factory against the foreign factory. (Loud and continuous cheer- 
ing.) I do not believe in a policy that gives a single day's work to any other 
nation in the world, so long as we have an idle man in the United States who 
wants to work. (Continuous applause.) If we do not protect our homes and our 
firesides, our employments and our occupations, nobody will do it for us. 
(Cries of 'You're right' and cheers.) Fortunately for us, we have given to us the 
power of the ballot, a power that enables a majority of the people of this 
country to adopt any public policy they believe will best subserve their interests. 
(Applause.) How will those ballots be cast (the speaker was here interrupted 
with cries of 'For MoKinley,' 'For MoKinley,* and tremendous applause) four 
weeks from next Tuesday? (Cries of 'We'll elect MoKinley.') That is the 
supreme day of the free man. (A voice, 'You will get all our votes.') The day 
when millions of American citizens can deposit in the ballot box the ballot 
which expresses their will and purpose. Whatever be that will and purpose, it 
must finally be carried into public law and administration. (Great cheering.) 
Are you satisfied with the present conditions? (Loud cries of 'No, No.') Would 
you not like to return to the conditions that existed between 1880 and 1890 ? 
(Cries of 'You bet', and cheering.) The only way you can do that (cries of 'Is 
to vote for MoKinley,' and laughter and applause) is to return to the policy 
that gave us that condition. (Applause.) I thank you for this call and bid you 
good morning." (Renewed and long continued cheering). 



BARBERTON IN LINE. 

Seven coach load-s of enthusiastic McKinley men arrived over the Cleveland 
Terminal and Valley road at eleven o'clock, Saturday, October 3rd, from 
Barberton, Ohio. They were well supplied with music, having the Barberton 
Drum Corps and Band. They formed at once and marched to the McKinley 
residence with flying banners. Here 0. C. Barbek, President of the Diamond 
Match Company, spoke briefly for them. 

319 



Ma}or McK'jnIey's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : (ISjire^the noise of bands approaching prevented 
lim from commencing ihis asddr'ess). I am afraid the delegations will get 
mixed to-day. (Tremeiid'ous cheering and laughter.) I only appear 
that I may make-suitable recognition of the kind words that have been broiiglit 
to me by my neighbors and friends of Summit County, living in the thriving 
town of Barberton. I know of no village any where in the country that bettor 
illustrates the possibilities of industry and enterprise tlian that village under 
the sound money and protective policy of the Republican Party. "We have all 
seen — those of us who are your neighbors — we have all seen its wonderful 
growth and progress. From a farm it has suddenly sprung up, or had suddenly 
sprung up, to be a thriving, prosperous, growing village, protected by 
American tariff and made stable by a sound and undepreciated American 
currency. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') I congratulate that village 
upon the progress it has made, and I am quite sure that with the experience it 
has had in the past three and a half years it will be ready on the third day of 
November to register, by an almost unanimous vote, its preference for a return 
to Republican policies. (Great cheering.) I bid you good afternoon.'' 
(Applause.) 

PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD EMPLOYES. 

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company's Sound Money Club followed the 
Standard Manufacturing Company's delegation, arriving five minutes later, or 
at 10:35, by the Fort Wayne road. Ten coaches were loaded down with en- 
thusiastic people, and every man was an employe of the Allegheny shops, 
and wore red, white and blue ribbons fastened with a McKinley button. Each 
visitor, and there v^ere over eight hundred men in the party, carried a small 
flag. Declarations for sound money and McKinley were seen on many 
banners, and little American flags bespoke their patriotism. The Fourteenth 
Regiment Band of Pittsburg furnished music for them. The visitors were met 
by the Escort andTi-oop and taken to their destination, where W. B. Kirkek, 
of Pittsburg, introduced them as the employes of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company in the shops at Allegheny. He assured Major McKinley that the 
shop men were unanimous and enthusiastic for him and the platform upon which 
he stood. Many of them had been Democrats in the past, he added, but in 
view of recent experiences they were very much ashamed of that record, and 
would do their best to correct it in November. (Cheers.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I appreciate this friendly call from the mechanics 
and workingmen of the Allegheny shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 
pany. I have been pleased to note in the public press and learn fi*om the many 
delegations that have visited me during the last six weeks, that the employes 
of our great railroads are deeply interested in the rightful settlement of the 
questions which are presented in this campaign. We have come to realize, no 
matter what may be our employment, that we are most prosperous when the 
country is most prosperous. We have come to realize that the railroads do the 
most business, pay the best wages, and have the most work when the farmers 
have good crops, good prices and good in«fiets and the manufacturers have 
plenty of orders and their workmen steady employment. (Loud cheering.) You 

820 



always build more engines, repair more engines, and do more by way of improv- 
ing equipments when your railroads do the most business, and when they do 
the most business you have the steadiest employment and best wages. 
Therefore, you, like other men engaged in the workshops of the country, are 
deeply interested in having a policy that will energize every industry of the 
country, bring to us the widest development of our resources and give us, 
whether we live in the West or the North or the South or the East, the largest 
and most general prosperity. (Tremendous applause.) This year, for the first 
time in four years, the people of the country have an opportunity to pass judg- 
ment upon the experience they have had since 1892. (Applause and cries of 
'We will do it.') You have an opportunity this year to approve or disapprove 
the policy which has given you that experience. What will your answer be on 
the third day of November? (Cries of *We will elect MoKinley.') Democrats 
and Republicans alike, I ask you, do you want a continuance of a policy that has 
taken work from the American workshop and given it to the foreign workshop, 
or do you disapprove of that policy? (Cries of 'You bet we disapprove,' and' 
'Hurrah for protection.') You will have an opportunity to vote directly upon 
that proposition. (A voice, 'You bet we will.') We have the best country in 
the world, and if it does not continue to be the best it will be our fault. We 
have the best railroads, and more railroads, andmore internal commerce than any 
other nation, and it is because we have such vast internal commerce that the 
railroads of this country have been able to extend their lines and give such liberal 
employment to American labor. You have an opportunity to vote this year on 
another question — as to whether you want good, full, round one hundred cent* 
dollars in payment of your wages, or whether you want to be paid in fifty-two 
eent dollars. (A voice, 'We want one hundred cent dollars every time.') No- 
body is cheated by a depreciated currency so much as the man who labors. 
This is the experience of mankind the world over. It has been our own expe- 
rience at every period in our history when we have entered upon an era of 
depreciated currency, and were living under the wild-cat banking system 
which issued State money. (Applause.) The workingmen of this country 
are its largest creditors. There is due the workingmen in prosperous times 
so vast a sum of money as to make them the greatest creditors of the world, 
and they are, therefore, more interested or quite as much interested as any 
other part of our population, in having a sound and stable currency, unvarying 
in value and good wherever trade goes. I thank you, my fellow citizens, for 
Ubis call. I am glad to know that the workingmen of the United States 
this year are with us, no matter what their political relations have been 
in the past; and that they mean to stand up for their country, (a voice, 'And 
McKixley') their country's prosperity, their country's honor, and for that 
policy which will secure to the largest number the greatest gQod. I thank you 
and bid you good afternoon." (Applause.) 

ANOTHER PITTSBURG DELEGATION. 

At eleven o'clock Saturday, October 3rd, another Fort Wayne special of 
twelve coaches tirrived. It contained a delegation from the Mackintosh-Hemp- 
hill Company's Mills of Pittsburg, with seven hundred voters. The Fort 
Pitt Foundry and the Star Tin Plate Works were represented. Gkorge 
B. Long headed the visitors as Chief Marshal. The Sheridan Sabre 
Band accompanied the party and as they alighted from the train struck up a 
popular topical selection. The marchers all wore tin plate badges with 

321 



Mclvinley portraits in the center, and ribbons designating the name 
of the club. The Canton Troop and Reception Committee with carriages 
headed the visitors along the line of march. L. B. Jackson presented the party 
and claimed for his company the making of the first gun for the Union forces 
in the '60's as well as the making of the largest sheet of tin manufactured. 
He said they came to give testimony as to the success of tin making in this 
country and to emphasize their endorsement of the Republican platform, a 
protective tariff and a sound and stable currency. (Cheers). 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fbllow Citizens: It is an inspiration to look into your earnest faces 
to-day and to feel that the great Republican cause has the sympathy of your 
hearts and will have your active and unremitting support until the polls close 
on the third of November. (Great applause.) I am glad to welcome to my 
home the employes or the Mackintosh-Hemphill Manufacturing Company and 
of the Star Tin Plate Company, of the city of Pittsburg. (Applause and cries 
of 'We are glad to be here.') I have met many, many thousands of people 
around this porch in the last three months, but I assure you that none have 
been more welcome than you. (Cheers.) I have been pleased to note that 
the men employed in the tin plate industries of the United States understand, 
though they understand it from a sad experience, that their industry, 
its success and continued prosperity depend upon a wise, judicious, 
American protective policy. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') 
Whatever reduction you may have had in your wages ; whatever reduction in 
tlie days of employment you may have had, you can distinctly trace the cause. 
You know when it occurred. (Cries of 'Yes we do.') You know how it 
occurred and you know what produced it. (Applause and cries of 'Free trade 
produced it.') Down to the close of 1892 enough men could not be found to 
work in the tin plate factories then in operatfon and that were being built for 
operation. How is it now? (Cries of 'We haven't any work.') I ask you work- 
ingmen of the Star Tin Plate Company is that the condition of your trade to-day? 
.'Cries of 'No. We want those good times back again.') We have started that 
industry and I say to you and to everybody else that it has come to stay. 
( Great cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') We mean to manu- 
facture tin plate for the whole American trade, and Pennsylvania alone 
has capacity at this very moment, if all her factories were at work on 
full time, to produce one third of all the tin plate that is consumed in the 
United States. (Applause and cries of 'That's true. Major.') Now, my fellow 
citizens, what we want to do is to put all that machinery to work, not only in 
the State of Pennsylvania, but in every other State of the American Union. 
(Great applause and cries of 'That's the stuff.') For we know that when you 
put machinery to work you put men to work, and when you put men to work 
you give them wages, which bring comfort, hope and cheer to their families. 
(Great cheering and cries of 'What's the matter with McKixley?') And we 
know that when we put the men of the country to jyork at American wages we 
are furnishing to the farmers of the United States the best and most profitable 
market they ever had. (Great applause and cries of 'Right you are.') Now, 
we not only have this tin plate industry in the United States, but we propose 
to have it stay with us, too. (Ti;emendous cheering.) We do not propose 
to give up our good one hundred cent dollars for fifty-two cent dollars. 
(Renewed cheering and cries of 'That's the stuff.') We do not propose to 

.S22 



permit any party to force us to adopt either the Mexican ov CMiinese system of 
finance. (Enthusiastic cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') We have 
always had the best money in the world, and we propose to keep it the best. 
It will be your privilege, my fellow citizens, on the third day of November- 
each one of you equally with the other — to deposit your ballots, which shall 
express your judgment upon a protective policy and sound money. How will 
you cast those ballots ? (Loud cries of 'Oast them for MoKinley and protec- 
tion,' followed by great cheering.) More than that your ballots will express 
your respect for law and order, (cries of 'That's right') for peace and domestic 
tranquility, for the honor of the Government of the United States, and for 
public and private honesty. (Great applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') I 
thank you and bid you good afternoon." (Great applause.) 



THE PITTSBURG AND WESTERN. 

At 11 : 35, Saturday, October 3rd, another big delegation arrived over the 
Cleveland, Terminal and Valley Kailroad. It consisted of three hundred em- 
ployes of the Pittsburg and Western Railroad from Pittsburg, and was met at 
the depot by the Reception Committee and escorted to the home of the Repub- 
lican standard bearer. Here they were introduced by Mr. R. K. Kraenbiehl. 



flajor McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Spokesman and Fellow Citizens: I am especially glad to meet 
at my home the employes of the Pittsburg and Western Railway Company. 
There used to be a time, and it is within the recollection of us all, when it 
was said that the wages of the railroad employes could not be affected by 
National tariff legislation. It used to be said that while a protective tariff 
might help the wages of protected industries, it could not have any effect 
upon the wages of the railroad men of the country. We have all come to 
discover that this is a mistake. (Applause and cries of 'You are right.') 
We have come to see that if the manufacturing establishments that are 
encouraged by a protective tariff are idle, the business of the railroad 
companies falls off, ai?d when the business of the railroad companies fail, 
employes are cut off. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') You 
have come to realize in your own experience that you have the highest 
prosperity, that you have the steadiest employment, that you have the best 
wages, only when the American factory is protected by a protective policy and 
the home market is preserved for the American farmer. (Great cheering and 
cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') ' You know that better now than you did 
four years ago, (renewed cheering and cries of 'Right') and knowing that, you 
will know how to vote on the tllSipd day of November. (Loud cries of 'We'll vote 
for McKiNLEY and Hobart,' followed by great cheering.) You will vote, I 
imagine, for the return of the policy that will start the fires in every furnace 
of the country, put every man to work, and make products for you to haul, 
(great applause) for when there are products for you to haul you are always 
on the pay roll at good wages. (Great cheering and cries of 'That's the stuff.') 
I thank you, my fellow citizens, and bid you good afternoon." (Great applause.) 

323 



MORE KEYSTONE CITIZENS. 

The Washington and Green County, Pennsylvania, delegations came to 
Canton via the Fort Wayne Eailroad at twelve o'clock, Saturday, October 3rd, in 
two trains of twelve coaches each. The first section was composed entirely of citi- 
zens of Cannonsburg, and the second section from Washington and other towns 
in the two counties. There were nearly fifteen hundred people in the com- 
bined delegations. The Taylorstown Cornet Band and the Thompsonville 
Band were along to furnish music. The visitors marched to their destination 
headed by Canton Troop and Eeception Committee. John H. Muedook made 
a general introduction for the party. He said : 

"Mr. Bryan is fond of saying, 'We will never know until we try.' We have 
tried depreciated currency, free trade, State's rights and mob rule to our 
heart's content and want no more of them. We turn, therefore, to you, sir, who 
in your own personality as well as in your representative capacity, stand for 
all that which we believe to be for the best interests of our country, and as 
patriotic citizens we pledge you our earnest and unfaltering support." 
(Applause.) 

John G. Clark, of Lagonda, spoke on behalf of the Wool Grower's Associa- 
tion. He said in part : 

"TariiT reform is reducing our numbers, and you hear from our county and 
State the same report as from all the wool producing States. There is dis- 
couragement on every hand and many of our flocks have gone to the shambles 
at a merely nominal price — almost nothing. A great crime was committed by 
the present administration when this great industry was separated from" the 
other leading industries and placed on the free list. We have heard a great 
deal in this campaign about the 'Crime of '73,' but the great crime of the age, the 
greatest crime of which any American Congress was ever guilty, was that of 
placing wool on the free list." (Applause.) 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : The presence of this large body of people from a 
neighlwring State is a manifestation of their confidence in Republican princi- 
ples, for which I make due and grateful acknowledgment. No one can recall 
your county without remembering that in it is located the college of Washing- 
ton and Jefferson, famous in the annals of our educational institutions, which 
has sent from its walls some of our most distinguished and illustrious citizens. 
No one can speak the name of your county without remembering that it was 
the birthplace of that matchless statesman and illustrious citizen, James G. 
Blaine. (Tremendous cheering.) Although he never reached the Presidency 
of the United States, he occupied for twenty years, and will ever continue to 
occupy, a high place in the hearts and affections of the American people, 
(Great applause.) I am glad to meet representatives of every part of your pop- 
ulation, farmers, wool growers— at least you once were (great laughter and 
applause) manufacturers and employes of the Washington Steel and Tin Plate 
Company, employes of the Anderson and Eclipse mines— all your population 
are thrice welcome here at my doorstep. (Great applause.) Washington, 
like every other county within the jurisdiction of the United States, 
knows from sad experience that we have been under a Democratic Administra- 
tion for 'the last three and a half years, (cries of 'We know that, Alajor, 
pretty well,' followed by great laughter and applause) and, like every 
-other county in the country, is anxious to return to that policy which for 

324 



•more than thirty years prevailed in the United States, and under which all our 
people enjoyed unprecedented prosperity, and our Nation made its greatest 
strides in progress and development. (Great cheering. A voice asked^ 
'What's the matter with Green County?*) And Green County is also thrice 
welcome. (Great laughter and applause.) All of Pennsylvania is welcome. 
(Renewed laughter and applause.) Pennsylvania seems to be of one mind, 
(Great laughter and cries of '"We'll give you 300,000, Major.') You are aware 
that the country which has the fewest workshops has the least internal com- 
merce, the poorest farms and the least prosperous farmers. (Cries of 'That's 
right.') We are favored in the United States with a great diversity of soil and 
climate. The statistics of the Department of Agriculture show that the value of 
our farm products alone is $2,500,000,000— the greatest farming and agricultural 
Nation of the world. (Applause.) 'An extensive market for the surplus pro- 
ducts of the soil,' said Hamilton, in 1790, 'is of the first consequence,' and 
never was of greater moment than now. Jambs G. Blainb declared one hun- 
dred years later : 'The farmer knows that the larger the home market, the 
better his prices, and that when his home market is poor, his prices fall.' 
(Applause and cries of 'That's right.') Pennsylvania farmers know quite 
as well as the farmers in any other part of the country, how much of their 
prosperity depends upon the workshops and the mines being steadily and 
constantly employed. (Cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') Every new factory that is 
started in Washington County, gives the farmer a new consumer, (cries of 
'Correct') and helps to give him better prices for the products of his soil. 
Whenever your mines, the Anderson and the Eclipse and your other mines, are 
running full time at good wages, the market of the farmer of Washington 
County is increased. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') The wisdom of 
the statesmanship of Hamilton and Blaine was unheeded in 1892. The free 
traders not only deprived our agriculturists of the protection they had against the 
importation of foreign wool, live stock and farm products ; not only took from 
them the benefits of reciprocity and new outlets for their surplus pro- 
ducts, but they now seriously propose to pay them for the small quantity 
they can sell at poor prices in the home market, in dollars of greatly lessened 
value and cheat them in quality under their financial policy, as free trade has 
cheated them in quantity. (Great applause and cries of 'That's right.') Gen- 
eral Gkant, in his Annual Message to Congress, in 1870, said: 'If it means 
failure to provide necessary means to defray all expenses of the Government 
and therefore repudiation of the public debt and pensions, then I am still more 
opposed to such kind of revenue reform.' (Great cheering.) So must all 
agree that if free silver is to add, as it will undoubtedly add, to the agricultural, 
manufacturing and commercial distress, now so severe in aU parts of the 
country, then we are more than ever opposed to it and to accepting the other 
delusion of false finance. (Applause and cries of 'We won't do it.')* The 
farmers of the United States are not to be misled. The workingmen 
of the United States are not to be misled. When the farmer seDs his 
wool and gives full pounds, he is entitled to have in return full dollars. 
(Great applause and cries of 'That's the stuflf.') When the workingman gives 
his 'muscle and skill to his employer, giving to that employer an honest 
day's work, he is entitled to be paiid in honest dollars that are unquestioned 
everywhere. (Great cheering.) And when the miner puts his coal on the 
dump, if that is what you call it— his ton of coal, a good, honest-ton— he is, 
entitled to be paid in honest dollars. (Renewed cheering and cries of 
•'Hurrah for MoKinley.') The farmers, they say, are always wrong. (Laugh- 

825 



ter.) They said they were wrong in 1892 on the question of protection, but tt 
■«vas the cities that were w'rong. It wasn't the Qountry at all. (Cries of 'Kight/) 
Our farmers are intelligent and not dishonest. (Great applause.) They have 
been honorable in all their transactions. They are not unpatriotic, but devoted, 
self-sacrificing and upright citizens, and they will vote for their own products. 
(Great applause and cries of 'We'll vote for McKixley, too.') They are not to 
be deceived by false teachings or false teachers, but this year, as in every 
crisis of our country's history, they will be found on the side of American honor, 
(applause) and put behind them every temptation and manfully sustain the 
right as God gives them to see the right. (Great applause.) They are true sons 
of the noble men who founded the Republic. They will resist every attempt 
to arouse class or sectional prejudice or spirit. (Cries of 'That's what we'll 
do.') Patrick Henry sounded the keynote of this campaign more than » 
century ago, when he said: 'The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsyl- 
vanians and New Yorkers are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an Ameri- 
can.' (Great cheering.) And so now all the citizens of the States, black and 
white, rich and poor, proud as they may be of their own commonwealths, ara 
still prouder of this grand American Union of indestructible States. (Great 
applause.) I thank you for this call and bid you good afternoon." (Great 
cheering.) 

SEVEN DELEGATIONS AT ONCE. 

A party of the employes of the American Wire Works of Cleveland, arrived 
over the Clevland, Canton and Southern Railroad at 12:30. Canton Troop 
met them at the depot and the drum corps which accompanied them led tha 
march through the city to the McKinley residence. The delegation numbered 
between five hundred and six hundred workingmen. 

The Harbison and Walker Fire Brick Company's employes and the Oil 
Well Supply Company's employes, of Pittsburg, arrived at 12:30 o'clock via th. 
Fort Wayne road on a special train of ten coaches. They had many banners, 
and were headed by the Boys' Drum Corps and the Twelfth Ward Band of 
Pittsburg. 

Cleveland also sent eight hundred laboring men by way of the Valley 
and Terminal Eailvray to see Major McKinley at noon, Saturday. They we*» 
the employes of the Kilby Manufacturing Company, the HP Nail Company 
and the Cleveland Hardware Company. The Kilby and Nail Company me« 
all wore mackintoshes. AH were well drilled and headed by the HP McKinky 
and Hobart Nail Keg Drum Corps, and made a splendid appearance. The Cleve- 
land Hardware Company employes carried cartridge canes and numerous ban- 
ners and transparencies. 

The McKinley Sound Money Club of Fort Wayne Indiana, arrived from 
the west at the Fort Wayne station about noon, Saturday, October 3rd. Ther* 
were six hundred people, employes of the Pennsylvania Company. The Fort 
Wayne Band of twenty-four pieces accompanied them and they were escorted 
by Canton Troop and Reception Committee to their destination. They carried 
many banners and aU were decorated with golden rod. 

The next audience which Major McKdtley addressed was composed of the 
seven delegations named above. Enoch Cox speaking for the raikoad men , said 
they had come from the office, from the forge, from the bench and from all 
branches of railroad w^ork, to express to :Major McKinley their confidence is 

326 



him and the principles he represented. These principles, he said, 
deeply interested the men of his calling. They would preserve the honor 
and integrity of the Naticfn as they would preserve its flag, and in 
the present contest the Republican candidate could rest assured of their sup- 
port. J. W. Sutherland introduced the wire workers. Charles I. DaileY 
said for the other delegations in the party that they represented men of honest 
convictions who had heretofore been of varied political beliefs, but after four 
years of darkness and fighting the wolf from the door, were now of one opinion 
and belief, that their hope was in Major McKinley and the party he repre- 
sented. William Caldwell introduced the Star Fire Brick Company employes 
from Pittsburg, four or five hundred strong, and Grant Hurley spoke for 
several hundred employes of the Oil Well Supply Company of Pittsburg. 

flajor McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens: I almost despair of being able to make myself 
heard by this great assemblage of my countrymen. In this vast audience there 
are representatives from the State of Indiana, from the the State of Pennsyl- 
vania, from the State of Illinois, and from my ovm State, Ohio. (A voice, 'Three 
cheers for Pennsylvania.') You come from different States but with a single 
purpose and that to testify your devotion to the principles of the great Repub- 
lican Party. (Applause and cries of 'That's what.') You come not as parti- 
sans simply, for this year partisanship counts for little. Patriotism is upper- 
most in every man's heart and in every home beneath the flag. (Applause and 
cries of ' You are right.') You come from different States, but you carry the 
same flag in your hands (a voice, 'That's right, you bet we do') the glorious 
old Stars and Stripes, (applause) and you carry the same sacred principles in 
your hearts. (Great cheering.) I am glad to meet and greet every one of you. 
I wish I might give every one of you a warm hand clasp, but you have 
my high regard and gratitude for the interest you are showing in the triumph 
of National honor, patriotism and protection. (Continued applause.) Parties 
do not make issues ; issues make parties. Men who think alike, act together— 
this vast crowd think alike and propose to act together on the third day of 
November. (Cries of ' You are riglit ' and tremendous applause.) Every heart 
here is inspired by the same thought ; every soul here is moved by the same 
consideration, and that consideration is the well-being and prosperity of the 
glorious American Union. (Great cheering.) We love our institutions because 
thy are the freest and best in the world. (A voice, ' That's the truth.') There 
is no other country beneath the sun like ours. (Cries of ' That's right ' and 
' Hear, hear.') And it never will be anybody else's (applause) so long as the 
American people have patriotism in their hearts. (Vociferous cheering and. 
waving of hats, umbrellas and canes.) We have not only the best country in 
the world, but we have the best — or did have three or four years ago, (laughter 
and applause) the best manufacturing establishments in the world, and we have 
good tin plate mills and the best railroads. (Applause.) We have also more 
miles of railroads than any other government in the world. (Cries of ' That's 
right.') And we furnish many of the nations of tlie world with oils which come 
principally from the fields of Pennsylvania. (Great cheering.) We furnish the 
world with tools that come from these several States. AVe have not only the 
best manufactories and the best railroads and the most of them, but we have 
the best money in the world. (Continuous cheering.) We have more gold in 
the United States than any other government has except France and Germany. 

327 



We have more silver than any other government except India and China. Everj 
dollar we have — gold, silver or paper — is worth one hundred cents wherever 
trade goes and in every mart and market place of the world. (Great applause.) 
Now, what we want to do is to get back what we lost in 1892, (Cries of ' That's 
what ' and applause.) Are you all agreed as to that? (Cries of 'We are ' and 
■" You bet.') Nobody seems to be satisfied with what was done in 1892; those 
who helped to do it and those who were against it are alike dissatisfied. What 
we want is to return to the normal prosperity of the United States ; we want to 
restore confidence and we want to set the wheels of industry in motion ; we 
want our trains to be doubled, and to be doubled, too, in the number of their em- 
ployes, in carrying the splendid trafiic of our internal commerce. Now, when 
we have done that, we want to see to it that the money of this country 
shall be preserved untarnished and the honor of this Government remain unsul- 
ied. More than that, we want the whole world to know that this is a govern- 
ment of law, (applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and ' That's right' ) and a 
government by law, and that beneath that government and around that 
government stand seventy millions of free people, who love the laws they 
helped to make. (Tremendous applause.) I thank you for this magnificent 
demonstration. I am glad to know that you have enlisted in the cause, and I 
bid you, in conclusion, to write on your ballots next November what you think 
is best for you, for your families, for your firesides, for your wives, and for 
your boys and girls." (Continuous cheering.) 

VENANGO COUNTY PEOPLE. 

The Venango County, Pennsylvania, delegation arrived in Canton about 
12:10 via the Fort Wayne Road. They came in two sections and there were 
seventeen hundred men in line. The excursion was in charge of the Franklin 
McKinley Club with General John A. Wiley in command. The towns repre- 
sented were Franklin, Oil City, Reno, Titusville, Polk and Raymilt. 

The Wooster, Ohio, University McKinley Club, two hundred strong, arrived 
on the 1 :21 l^ort Wayne train. They carried a large American flag and pen- 
nants, with the college colors, making a splendid appearance. Col. S. C. 
Lewis extended the greetings of Venango County with assurances of sup- 
port. Hon. Thomas McGough spoke in behalf of the oil interests of the county. 
He said they were satisfied with the prosperity achieved, but were looking into 
the future. They realized that they could not continue to prosper if the re- 
mainder of the country did not, and to that end they desired to lend their aid to 
whatever was for the best interests of all. Robert A. Crawford spoke for the 
students. He said they came as Republicans, as most of the students of insti- 
tutions of learning came, that the number of Republican collegians was 
about the same this year as the total number of students. They believed, he 
said, that the fight was for great principles without the maintenance of which 
there could be no great prosperity and advancement, and they would do their 
part for those principles. (Applause.) 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I have already spoken a great many times to-dny 
and to many thousands of people. The principles of the Republican Party are 
so National in their character and so universal in their application that they 
can be presented to any audience anywhere, and to any consolidation of audi- 
ences that may come to tlie city of Canton. I can with propriety present to 

328 



my fellow citizens of Venango Oovmty, the oil producers and drillers, the 
farmers, the manufacturers and the employes, the same doctrines and argu- 
ments that I can present to the students of the University of Wooster. * (Ap- 
plause.) We are all standing upon the same platform — the platform of public 
faith, of an honest compliance to every public or private contract, an honest 
dollar and the Nation's honor and of law and order. (Applause and cries of 'Good,'; 
good.') We are all carrying the same flag this year and it is good enough for 
any of us. (Applause.) The glorious old flag that we followed in time of war 
and that was never triumphed over (a voice, 'And never will be') by any 
enemy in the world. (Great cheering.) It represents our beliefs, our aims, and 
our piu'poses, for we have no purpose now, as your spokesman from Venango so 
well said, but the public good, the common good of all. (Great applause.) 
Whatever will secure that ; whatever will promote the prosperity of the people ; 
whatever will dignify and elevate American manhood and American woman- 
hood, is embraced in the principles of the Republican Party. (Renewed ap- 
plause. ) This year we are fighting just as distinctly for our country's honor as 
we have ever fought for it in the past. (Cries of 'You are right,' and applause.) 
We are fighting to restore a protective policy under which we had become the 
mightiest manufacturing, agriciiltm*al, and mining nation of the world. We 
are fighting for a policy that elevates American citizenship and gives to the 
labor and the genius of the American workingman, as well as to the scholar, higher 
rewards than he can get in any other government in the world. (Cries of 'Good,' 
'Good,' and great applause.*) We are fighting to restore that policy and 
we are fighting, unitedly fighting, to keep the currency of this country as 
sound as the Government and as untarnished as the starry banner of the free. 
(Tremendous cheering.) We propose that this Nation shall not begin now, 
after one hundred and twenty years of glorious history, to repudiate its debts, 
either public or private. (Renewed cheering.) I am glad to meet you aQ. 
(Voice: 'So are we glad to meet you, Major.') One glorious thing about Re- 
publican principles is that they address themselves to the educated men of the 
country as well as the uneducated, and we submit them with confidence to the 
learned of every profession. We appeal not to passion, not to prejudice, not to 
ignorance, but to intelligence and patriotism. (Cries of 'Good,' i*(arood,' and 
'That's the way to talk.') And now, my fellow citizens, having said this much 
—fori hear another' delegation coming, (laughter and applause) I must thank 
you all and say good-bye." (Demonstrations of enthusiastic applause.) 

THE UNION VETERANS' PATRIOTIC LEAGUE. 

The Union Veterans' Patriotic League of Pittsburg and Allegheny arrived 
via the Fort Wayne road at three o'clock, Saturday afternoon. There were 
over seven hundred battle-scarred veterans, many of them minus an arm. 
or a leg, examples of what brave men endured for the preservation of the 
Union. As they marched up the principal streets to their destination, the 
cheering by the people enroute was vociferous. The old flags torn by bullets and 
faded by the elements of nature, were conspicuous in the parade. The veterans 
were headed by the Grand Army Band of Allegheny, and were escorted by 
Canton Troop and the old soldiers of Canton who turned out one hundred 
and fifty strong to receive them. The delegation was composed of the Pitts- 
burg Union Veterans' Patriotic League and the Allegheny County War Veterans' 
Club. The latter recently adopted a preamble and resolutions warmly 
endorsing Major McKinley as a comrade, and as a representative of 

329 



the policy which would best advance the interests of the Nation. Jam us 
B. Stuart presented what was said to have been the first tin horn blown 
in Pittsburg in honor of Major McKinley'b nomination. It was embellished 
with gold and silver ornaments. Colonel Charles F. McKenna was intro- 
duced as a late Democrat who had never voted a Republican ticket but who 
this year would support Major MoKini-ey. In acknowledging the introduc- 
tion Mr, McKenna said that upon reading the story of the Chicago Con- 
vention, he was impressed with the close resemblance of its proceedings to some 
historic proceedings in 1860. Finding the Nation thus assailed he had placed 
the supremacy of law above all other questions and arrayed himself against the 
work of that convention. He paid a glowing tribute to the late Samuel J. 
Randall and his tariff record, at which Major McKinley pounded his silk hat 
right vigorously by way of applause, and the crowd joined in the cheering. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens : Nothing has touched me as deeply or moved me 
more in all the interesting weeks of the past than the presence here of this large 
body of veterans from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. (Applause. ) I greet you 
not as partisans but as comrades. (Great applause.) There is no name dearer, 
or closer, or more sacred to the old soldiers than that. (Cheers.) The war is 
all over. The North and the South are again united. I am to have next week 
a visit from five hundred ex-Confederate soldiers, who bring testimony of their 
devotion to the great principles for which, temporarily, I stand. (Great cheer- 
ing. ) There are two names that always come to every soldier when talking to 
soldiers — Sumter and Appomatox. Sumter registers the opening of that great 
Civil War and Appomatox its close, Sumterrecords when the flag was fired on, 
and the Union was threatened, and Appomatox records when the victory was 
won and the flag was again sacred to all and the Union safe. (Great applause.) 
It is the business of the old soldiers of this country, whether they fought on one 
side or the other, it is their business especially, to see that the Union vrhich 
was thus saved shall be preserved forever. (Great cheering.) The liberty which 
you achieved means responsibility and duty. Duty is God's order, and, when 
once obeyed, liberty is safe and the law supreme. (Gh-eat applause.) I am glad 
to know that the Veterans of the Grand Army who fought for the preservation of 
the Union of the States are to-day, almost to a man, touching elbows in support 
of public honor and personal honesty. ( Great applause and cries of 'That's right' ) 
Standing in the presence of these tattered flags, glorious emblems of a glorious 
cause, inspires patriotism in every heart. You know what those tattered flag» 
mean. You know what they cost in blood. Some things are so priceless that 
the nations which buy them pay only in blood. (Great cheering.) My fellow 
citizens, the regret to me always when I stand in the presence of an audiaioe 
of old soldiers, is the sad memory that so many of them are no longer wi& ns. 

'They are gone who seemed so great 
Gone ! but nothing can bereave them 

Of the force they made their own 

. Being here ; and we believe them 

Something far advanced in state, 
And that they wear a truer crown 

Than any wreath that man can weave them. 
Speak no more of their renown, 

And in the vast cathedral leave them. 
God accept them ; Christ receive them. ' 
(Great cheering.) My comrades, I thank you for this demonstration and lor 

330 



your assurance of support, not support of me personally, but of the principles of 
the Republican Party. (Applause.) Nothing has given me greater satisfaction 
in this contest than to see those old veterans, those magnificent soldiers. Gen- 
erals Sickles, Howard, Sigel and Alger, traveling from one end of the country 
to the other, carrying the old flag and speaking for Republican principles. 
(Great cheering.) Another delegation is w^aiting, so thanking you from the 
bottom of my heart for the compliment you have paid me, I must bid you good 
afternoon." (Great applause.) 

THE CINCINNATI STAMINA CLUB. 

The Stamina Club of Cincinnati, three hundred and fifty strong, including 
many sound money advocates recruited from other parties, was introduced by 
the President of the Club, Mr. C. C. Benedict, who said that Hamilton County 
was sure to give 30,000 Republican majority, and they were working very hard 
to make it 40,000. It was now nearly dark, but there was no decrease in the 
number of listeners, or the remarkable enthusiasm which had prevailed 
throughout the day. 

Major McKinley's Response. ». 

"Mr, Benedict and Gentlemen of the Stamina Republican Club: It 
gives me great gratification to have this Club, which I have known for several 
years and have seen participating in other Important campaigns of the past, 
here to-day. Four weeks from next Tuesday the voters of this country will ex- 
ercise their sovereignty. (Great applause.) It is a spectacle that cannot be 
witnessed in any other country. On a single day, from sunrise to sunset, 
fifteen millions of free men, by the use of the ballot, will determine what policies 
shall prevail and what legislation be enacted for this country. There is no 
other duty so serious as that devolving upon the American elector- this year. 
Differing somewhat from former years, the people of the country are alive to 
the importance of the questions that are now engaging public attention. Every 
citizen feels that the contest is linked with home, fireside and family, with 
wages, employment and prosperity ; and the people everywhere this year intend 
to give their votes for that party and for those principles which they think will 
elevate American citizenship and advance the honor and glory of the 
American Republic. (Great applause.) I am glad to know that the young men 
of the United States are enrolled, nearly unanimously, for the Republican 
cause. It. is worthy their best efforts and greatest endeavors. It appeals to 
the noblest patriotism ; it invokes the highest aspirations of the American citizen. 
(Applause.) I know something of the Stamina Republican Club of Cincinnati, 
and am aware that in season and out of season, in off years and other years, 
your splendid organization has always borne aloft the Republican banner. And 
I know, also, something of the Republicanism of Hamilton County, (great 
applause and cries of 'That's the stuff') a Republicanism that never wavers, 
(renewed applause and cries of 'Right you are') but always gives increased 
majorities, and I am pleased to hear that this is your expectation in the present 
contest. (Great cheering.) I thank you for this call. You are all welcome. I 
•would insist upon you staying longer, but this is a year when we are having so 
many delegations that one must give way to the other (great laughter and 
applause) each in its turn, but on the third day of November we will all be 
together in the same cause, voting the same ticket. (Great applause.) I bid 
j-ou good afternoon." (Applause.) 

331 



A GOLDEN LOVING CUP. 

The silversmiths of Chicago, San Francisco, New York and other cities, 
on Saturday afternoon, October 3rd, presented Major McKinley with a magnifi- 
cent gold cup, about fourteen inches high and valued at $500. The cup rests 
upon a white onyx stand and is enclosed in a royal purple case lined with white 
satin having an elegant silk American flag as the background. On one side 
is inscribed: " In Silver We Believe "When Redeemable in Gold," and un the 
reverse "Hon. William McKinlky, Statesman, Patriot and Champion of an 
Honest Dollar. Presented by the employes of the Mauser Manui'acturiiig 
Company, silversmiths of New York, regardless of past party affiliations, as a 
token of merit in the cause of honest money." A coat of arms is also inscribed 
with the motto, "E Pluribus TJnum." In lieu of handles are two American 
eagles supported by shields. The presentation speech was made by jVIt. S. 
Geobge Dessauer, of New York, who read the following resolutions : 

"To THE HoNOKABLB WhjLiam MoKiNLEY : We, the Undersigned, a com- 
mittee appointed by the mechanics and silversmiths of the Mauser Manu- 
facturing Company, of New York City, during our noon-day discussions on the 
political questions of the day, have come to the following conclusions, viz: 
That the power of voting which has been granted to us by the Constitution of 
our native and adopted country should be used as follows : 

"Resolved, That our best interests will be served first and last by having 
the dollar with which we are paid worth 100 cents ; and be it further 

Resolved, That to give expression to our opinions, and, by chance, in- 
fluence our fellow workmen, that they may see that their interests and ours are 
one, we present to Hon. William McKinley, of Canton, Ohio, a specimen of our 
workmanship. We trust that the same will be a lasting memento to one whom 
we know believes that an honest workman is worthy of an honest dollar when he 
has completed an honest day's work." 

James C. Shannon, 
Chairman , 
Signed] Max F. Mauss, 

William F. Hayes, 
Thomas Lee, 
Committee ot Workmen. 

The vase was brought to Canton and presented by seven of tiie foremost 
silversmiths in the United States, namely: A. W. Adcook, H. S. Hyman, H. D. 
Stevens, Edwaed Fokman, E. Bauman, Walter Higgins, Chicago; James 
Madison, San Francisco, California; Miss Dorothy Tanner, a niece of :Mi-. 
Madison. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"Gentlemen: I appreciate most heartily this token of your regard and 
confidence. I value it not for what it is, but far more for what it represents. 
(Applause). To feel that the silversmiths and mechanics of youi- great house 
have with their own hands prepared this magnificent vase as a present for the 
Republican standard bearer, fills me with a gratitude which I can but inade- 
quately express. (Applause.) I beg you wiU convey to those whom you 
represent, and receive for yourselves, my heartiest thanks. And I want you 
to know that this beautiful cup, prepared and wrought by American labor, 
coming to mo from the hand of labor, wiU be kept and cherished in my family 

332 



forever. (Great applause.) I am glad to know that the workingmen whom 
you represent feel that a protective tariff and sound money axe alike^ indis- 
pensable to their prosperity and the welfare of the whole country. I thank 
you and bid you good afternoon." (Applause.) 

WHEELMEN'S REPUBLICAN LEAGUE. 

The McKinley Wheelmen of Alliance arrived on the 10:26 o'clock, Fort 
Wayne train, Saturday morning. There were over one hundred of them and 
each wore a white cap and white duck coat, and carried a gold pennant with the 
name "Alliance" inscribed thereon. Three hundred fellow-citizens came along 
but not as a delegation. The McKinley Wheelmen of Buffalo, New York, and 
the Lawrenceville (Pennsylvania) Club, arrived via the Fort Wayne road 
at 12:30 o'clock on a special train and were escorted to headquarters by 
the Canton Flambeau Wheelmen's Club. The five special trains conveying tho 
Cincinnati bicyclists, the Bohemian Americans and the Cleveland bicyclists, 
arrived at the Cleveland, Canton and Southern depot in the afternoon. Several 
thousand excursionists were on these trains. Owing to the crowded streets and 
interruptions by street cars and railway trains, much difficulty was experienced 
in organizing and keeping together. It was utterly impossible to ride in 
parade past the McKinley home for review, as contemplated. Instead the 
riders, as they approached the crowd, dismounted and led their wheels to points 
as near the stand as possible. The reception opened with selections by the 
Kenwood McKinley Glee Club, of Chicago, which were very enjoyable. E. P. 
Walker, President of the National Wheelmen's Eepublican Club, acted as 
master of ceremonies, and introduced the Vice President, W. P. Williams, of 
Chicago, as one of the spokesmen : Mr. Williams said : 

"Major McKinley: The wheeled hosts of the United States come to-day 
to avow their allegiance to you, the great leader of a great political party in a 
great National crisis. We come from the farm and from the city ; from the work- 
shop and from the counting room ; from the factory and from the store ; from 
the East and from the West ; from the North and from the South. We represent 
no particular section of country but all sections ; no particular occupation, but all 
occupations ; no particular interest, but all interests ; no particular rank in life, 
but all ranks. Our bond of brotherhood is the wheel — not a mere toy or simple 
source of pleasure, but a great commercial auxiliary, the acme of mechanical 
skill in the evolution of the vehicle. «* The enthusiasm of wheelmen is proverb- 
ial. To-day there is no diminution, but an increase of that enthusiasm, and 
every pulsation of that activity is dedicated to a patriotic resolution to worki 
and win under the leadership of William McKmiiKT, the man of the people, the; 
man of ideal home life, the scholar, the patriot, the orator, the statesman, thej 
next President of these United States. (Applause.) The National Wheelmen'sj 
McKinley and Hobart Club, conceived in a happy moment by our President, 
Mr. WALKEE,and developed by him and the other officers, is to-day actively and' 
extensively organized in every State in the Union ; and the enrollment grows so 
fast that this movement bids fair to be the banner campaign organization o£ 
1896. The wheelmen are alive to the dangers of the hour, as threatened by that] 
extraordinary platform promulgated at Chicago last July. The assault on oa» 
Supreme Court is but the muttering of revolution. The screed against Federali 
interference is the lowering of Old Glory to the red flag of anarchy. Free silver 
at 16 to 1 is repudiation and National dishonor. To these un-American doctrines 
we can not subscribe, and against them we patriotically eaeo^ ourselyes. ?> In 

833 



marked contrast to these proposed revolutionary measures, is the platform of 
the party you so ably lead, and of aU the crystalizations of the questions at issue, 
none, in my humble judgment, has been so clear and perfect as your statement 
tiaat 'it is a good deal better to open the mills of the United States to the labor of 
America, than to open the mints of the United States to the silver of the 
world.' This is the issue. Not the exploiting of one industry for the benefit . .f 
the few, but the reviving of our numberless prostrated industries for the benclit 
of the many. Not the work of prospecting, but the prospect of working. Not 
the labor of development, but the development of labor. Not the dislodging of 
silver ore by blast or pick, to debase our currency, but the destruction of tlie 
competition of cheap foreign made goods by the dynamic force of an equitable 
tariff which fully protects American labor. Not the transporting of silver bul- 
lion to the hungry maw of a free mint, but the carrying of our goods and pro- 
duce to the great home market of a free people at work. Not the fumes of the 
smelter, but the smoke of the factory. Not the clank of the machinery that 
mints the dollar, but the whir of the spindle and loom that creates the Na- 
tion's wealth. Not the free and unlimited coinage of the precious metal but the 
free and unlimited output of the work of a precious people. As wheelmen 
then, but more than that, as patriotic Americans, we here and now dedicate 
ourselves, our untiring activity, our influence and our votes to you and the 
mighty cause you so fitly represent, confident that the fight we are waging 
under your leadership will be a successful one, because we are struggling for the 
right." (Great applause.) 

Mr, "W. "W. "Watts, of the Executive Committee of Louisville, Kentucky, 
on being introduced by Mr. "Walker, said : 

" Major McKiNLET : A Eepublican all my life, and at times when to be 
such within my State seemed idle so far as results were concerned, it gives 
me the greatest pleasure to come before you to-day as the representative of 
thousands of wheelmen — Republican and Democratic alike— from the home of the 
'star-eyed goddess of reform'— and bring their greetings and glad tidings to the 
great apostle of a protective tariff. Not alone do the wheelmen of Kentucky 
greet you, but in this greeting are the voices of many thousands of 
riders in that vast territory, the beautiful, sunny South. And just as in 
Kentucky, it comes from Democrats as as well Eepublicans, without regard to 
past party aflBliation. It may well be asked why is it that members of an oppos- 
ing party, an old time enemy, are to-day wishing and working for your success 
— yom- election to the high oflHce for which you have been named. Thereason is 
plain. As wheelmen, they remember your courtesy while Governor of the State 
of Ohio to the National Assembly of the League of American Wheelmen, that 
grand organization in control of cycling alTairs in America, in session at Colum- 
bus, in 1892. They remember that as Governor of the State, you espoused that 
cause so dear to the hearts of all wheelmen — the good roads crusade. They 
remember that in your official positions, you gave to that cause such aid 
as was in your power. They know that you are an enemy to anarchy ; an enemy 
to revolution ; an enemy to repudiation ; they know you are for building up the 
industries of this, the greatest country on earth ; they know that you are 
their friend. Already the organization of wheelmen has begun in your behalf in 
the South. A most remarkable fact developed in the enrollment of members of 
the McKinley and Hobart Wheelmen's Club. In my city the riders of our modern 
steeds were approached, and asked to join our club, without regai-d to party 
affiliation. After one hundred had been asked a rest was taken, and a report of 

334 



progress made. ^ Of that one kondrei, sJboat tvre-tliiTds of whom had be^i 
Democrats, but one refused, while the other ninety-nine had signed and agreed 
to do what they could for you. This good work contmues ; pens can not be found 
quickly enough for signatures, imd by November third the wheelmen in the 
South, with puncture-proof tires riding over thorns — *no cross' for them, will be 
presented to the enemy in solid phalanx, with McKinley and Hobart flags 
floating to the breeze, and above the din and roar of the battle then taking 
place, there will be heard their voices giving the password : 

TVIcKrNXEY — Our Friend, 

McKrNM:Y'M!)ur Homes, 

MoKiNiiEY — Our Country.* " 
The applause of the addresses and that with which Major MoKinlet was 
greeted, was accompanied by a jingling of the bells on the wheels that proved a 
novel method of greeting. Few more enthusiastic «powds ever participated in 
a political demonstration. After delighting the people upon the lawn, the 
Kenwood McKinley Glee Olub accepted an invitation to sing in the house for 
Mrs. McKiNXEY and a party of friends who were with her. Their music was 
much enjoyed. The Olub was composed of Johk Jamison, G, R. Jenkins, J. C. 
Brown, W. E. Brown, F. H. Atkinson, BuelI/ McKeevee, F. F. Pratt, C. C. 
"Whitacre, p. B. Herr, J. D. Hibbard, E. K. Carver, H. B. Squire, J. W. 
Carver, Henry Demas and J. H. Butube. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Chairman and my Fellow Citizens : You are very welcome to my 
home. You are of the last of the delegations of this week, but by no means the 
least. (Laughter and applause.) I am glad, thrice glad, to have the wheelmen 
representing more than a dozen States of the American Union, call to give me 
not only assurance of their individual support, but of the support of the 
many thousands whom they represent. I am pleased with the assuring messages 
of your eloquent spokesmen. You not only ride well but you speak weE. 
(Laughter and applause. ) T can only say in return for those generous and pleas- 
ing words that I thank you most sincerely. (Applause. ) Uniformed clubs on 
wheels are novel in political contests and are truly and originally American. 
Their presence marks a new era in campaign work, and I can not forbear to 
congratulate you upon the inauguration of this mighty force in National pol- 
itics. The bicycle is entirely a development of the Nineteenth Century, and 
in no age in the history of the world would its benefits and utility have 
been so quickly and generally acknowledged. In the category of inventions, 
I doubt if any vehicle, or means of locomotion, was ever so favorably received. 
Indeed, its growth in public favor and general use is little less than marvelous. 
We all remember as boys how we wondered if it would be possible that 
locomotion ever would be invented so rapid as to transport us in a single 
night from one side of our State to the other. And yet Yankee ingenuity and 
American invention have made it possible for ijs to cross almost a half dozen 
States in a single night. (Applause.) Eapid transit in this novel form depends 
largely upon a single condition— good roads (great cheering and ringing of 
bicycle bells) and I believe in them, (great applause) and I can not help but 
recall as the eloquent Kentuckian, your spokesman, has said, that Heney Clay 
is the statesman to whom the country is most largely indebted for the gi'eatest 
National road, in aU probability, that was ever built. (Applause.) Good roads 
are progressing, with remarkable advancement, in every part of our wonderful 

335 



coinitry. It is a matter of congratulation that most of th© States, influenoed 
almost entirely by your efforts, hare pressed the subject hom« upon the people 
with gratifying results. An Italian once called the bicycle 'a poem in metal,' 
but its use is long since out of the realm of romance and song, and is now looked 
upon as one of the greatest inventions of the time — ranking with the steam- 
boat, railroad, telegraph and telephone. (Great cheering.) Americans are 
eminently practical people and were quick to see both the convenience and 
utility of this beautiful machine, so simple and perfect in every part, and 
so well designed, that prejudice could not avail against it, nor pride, or 
prudishness, or fear, prevent its widest use by men, women and children, every- 
where. (Applatise and ringing of bells.) Such a scene as I witness before me 
to-day would not be possible in any other country of the world. It is a spectacle 
long to be remembered, and at once an inspiration and an education. Bicycle 
riding is useful, not only for health and recreation, but in business and in almost 
every department of human exertion. The bicycle delivers our mail ; it carries 
messages with swiftness and reliability ; it is in uee for courier service in the 
army and police and health department of our cities. It is employed in many 
other forms of delivery work, and with the application of power its usefulness 
will practically have no limit. No one should attempt the statistics of the 
bicycle industry. In 1870 there was not a bicycle manufactory in the world. 
In 1880 there were but three in America, and those only experimenting in 
the most vague and indifferent manner. In 1895, fifteen years later, there were 
three hundred bicycle factories with a product of 500,000 machines at a cost of 
$37,500,000, while the output predicted for this year 1896, is 800,000. (Applause.) 
'To describe the modem bicycle,* says a recent writer, 'is to foUow a bullet in 
its flight.' (Laughter and applause.) This nobody would undertake to do. 
The cyclist, I believe, has beaten the best time ever made by a horse and has- 
almost surpassed in speed the fastest engines of the world. (Continued cheer- 
ing and tingling of bells. ) The speed of the wheelmen would be extremely use- 
ful for a political party if mere distance were the test of its running qualities. 
(Great laughter and cheering.) The size of a political party, however, is in the 
strength of its cause. (Applause and cries of 'Hear,' 'Hear.'^<»Its running 
qualities rest upon its principles, and how far those principles shall command 
the conscience, the confidence and the intelligence of the American people. 
Those principles were never stronger and never appealed to the interest of the 
American voter as now, and never within your knowledge or mine, except in 
the days of the war, has the Republican cause so absorbed public thought and 
commanded earnest effort on the part of the people than this year, 1896. 
ISTever were there so many hands willing, to help that cause. Never were 
there so many willing hearts loving that cause as now — never in all our history. 
(Applause.) Never was so much individual effort, apart from the work of the 
campaign committee, performed by Democrats and Republicans and men of 
other parties, as now. Never were men of all races and nationalities, employ- 
ments and professions, so earnest for the success of the Kejniblican cause as to- 
day. The women are alike interested ; they want good laws and good jwlities 
and good government and believe them quite as necessary for their welfare and 
happiness as for that of their husbands, or brothers, or fathers. ( Apphuiso. ) I 
may be wrong but I do not recall that the wheelmen of this country, repre- 
senting as they do its homes, firesides and professions, were ever interest- 
ed in a political campaign before. AVhat but a mighty cause would bring five 
thousand wheelmen from different sections of the country to Canton to pay a. 
visit to a Pi-esidential candidate of a political party I Your visit demonstratea 

3'6 



the earnest feeling of the people, their solicitude in the outcome of a po- 
litical contest. The wheelmen know, as well as any part of our poi^ulation, 
what good roads mean, and how much easier it is to make progi'ess and time 
over them than over poor roads. They know, too, that for three and a half 
years this country has been traveling over a rocky road, (tremendous ap- 
plause and ringing of bells) full of ruts and quagmires and covered with ob- 
structions, and as a result the American people have had a very hard road to 
travel. (Great laughter and applause.) They want an improvement. They 
not only want better roads for their wheels, but they want every obstruction re- 
moved from the great National highway so that the wheels of industry will start 
in every factory and mill in the United States. (Vociferous cheering.) They 
would rather have American wheels running in our factories, giving employ- 
ment to American labor and supplying us with American products, than to 
have foreign wheels supplying us with goods. Good roads are indispensable to 
the comfort of the wheelmen, and good money is indispensable to the progi*ess 
and integrity of the United States. (Applause.) I am glad to know that the 
wheelmen in such vast numbers are enlisted in the cause of an honest dollar, 
honest observation of law, honest payment of the public debt, honesty in the exe- 
cution of private contracts, a protective tariff that will defend American citizens 
from the cheap labor of other countries and which at the same time will pre- 
serve a good home market to the farmers of the United States. (Great ap- 
plause.) Your visit will inspire higher and greater activity for the triumph of 
the cause in November, and will cheer the hearts of its friends everywhere. 
I thank you and bid you good-bye." (Great applause.) 

A SPECIAL ADDRESS. 

The wheelmen of the city of Cleveland, having arrived late after being sepa- 
rated from those of other places by the great crowds in the street, demanded a 
special address. Owing to the lateness of the hour but a few words could be 
spoken to them. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Gentlemen: I am very glad to meet all of you who come from Cleve- 
land. I have already made one speech to the wheelmen generally, which you 
will have an opportunity to read, and as I have a delegation yet to address, I 
am sure you will excuse me from making any further remarks. I thank you 
sincerely for your presence. I appreciate your attendance at this great wheel- 
men's demonstration in Canton." (Three cheers.) 

THE BOHEHIANS OF CLEVELAND. 

Darkness was falling fast when the faithful Canton Troop and Citizens' Re- 
ception Committee appeared in front of the stand, escorting the last delegation 
of the day, composed of about two thousand naturalized voters from Cleveland of 
Bohemian or Slavonic extraction. Each of the visitors carried an American 
flag and as they waved a greeting to Major McKinley the street seemed to be 
literally covered with a canopy of National colors. The electric curr?nt was 
turned on so as to illuminate the stand and permit the meeting to pro- 
ceed. Earnest addresses, assuring loyal support of the Bohemians and Slavon- 
ians everywhere, were made by Messrs. P. J. Slach and J. W. Sykoea. 

337 I 



flajor McKinley's Response. 

*' Mt Fbllow Citizens: I am greatly honored to have this visit from my 
'fellow citizens of Bohemian and Slavonic descent, now equal citizens of this 
Eepublic and all alike acknowledging allegiance to the beautiful flag which you 
carry. (Applause and waving of American flags. ) A love of fatherland only 
tends to make a better lover for your adopted land. (Applause.) I congratulate 
you that in this free Republic every man, no matter from whence he comes, or 
to what nationality he belongs, is an equal citizen, and has an equal opportu- 
nity in the race of life. We have in this country no rank except the rank that 
every boy and girl can reach by industry and honesty and good character. 
(Applause and cries of 'Good.') "We have in this country no caste, no 
classes, no law of primogeniture which gives the first born opportunities over all 
others. Here, everybody stands on the same common platform of equality. You 
came to this country, took upon you the vows of citizenship, and have be- 
come a part of our civilization. Therefore, upon you, as upon all other citizens, 
rests the responsibility of carrying out the splendid destiny of our Government. 
(Continuous applause.) I am sure you can be counted upon, and as long as you 
cari'y that starry banner in your hands and have imbedded in your hearts what 
it represents, nothing can ever go wrong with the American Republic. (Ap- 
plause.) God bless and keep you all; may He give you a safe return to your 
homes and bring plenty and prosperity to your firesides is my earnest wish. I 
am glad to be told by your spokesmen that you believe in honesty — not only 
honesty in the private transactions of life, but honesty in public affairs; and, 
when you have work, that you want your employer to pay you in good, 
honest dollars that can never depreciate. (Great applause and waving of flags.) 
We do not want any thing in this country but what is of the best. (Cries of 'Good,' 
'Good.') You came to America to get the best, and I trust that every one of you 
will realize, in their fullest measure, all the ambitions and aspirations you had 
when you came to live in this free Republic. I thank you for this call and bid 
you good evening." (Three rousing cheers were then given for McKinlet.) 



CANTON FIRST VOTERS' CLUB. 

The Young America Republican Club of Canton, composed principally of 
young men who were to cast their first votes on November 3rd, enjoyed a pleas- 
ant call upon Major McKinley at his residence, Monday evening, October 5th. 
The organization was formed but two weeks previous and had a membership of 
over one hundred. They made their first appearance that night and their 
initial parade was striking. Each wore a wliite duck cap and carried a McKin- 
ley cane. They had drilled considerably and marched well. Headed by their 
own drum corps, they proceeded to the residence. Enroute they gave 
a new cry for McKinley and Canton, wliicli also included the information 
that they were first voters. They marched into the yard, and wlien ISIajor Mc- 
Kinley stepped out upon the porch, the clieering was enthusiastic and spon- 
taneous. Thomas F. TuKNER, Esq., was the spokesman of the party and intro- 
duced them in a brief but eloquent address. In substance he said : 

"Major McKinley: I have the pleasure of introducing to you the Young 
America Republican Club of your home city. It comprises young men who 
will cast their first votes for protection and sound money on November 3rd. 
Tlie club has a membership of over one hundred, and many of them were in 
their primers when you were earning fame and honor in your country's cause 

338 



at Washington. They have been familiar with your achievements and your 
sterling worth, and the impression of patriotism and loyalty which your life 
has made upon them will, no doubt, extend beyond this generation into 
posterity." Three cheers were again given Major MoKinlbt by the young men 
before he could address them. 

ilajor McKinley's Response. 

"Young GBNTiiEMEN of Canton: I am very glad, to meet you at my home 
tonight, and I congratulate you upon having enrolled yourselves on the side of 
the Republican Party. No party ever did more for mankind, for liberty, for 
equality, and for the progress and glory of the country, than the party in whose 
cause you have enlisted. No party appeals more to the intelligence, pride ^ 
and patriotism of young men than ours. I appreciate this call. The young 
men are always an inspiration tome. They are the hope of the community, 
the State and the Nation. (Applause.) In a little while there will rest upon 
them the duties and responsibilities which are now borne by those who are 
older. I love to have the yovmg men about me, and I can do no better than to 
say to each of you to-night — you who have your careers yet to make, 
and your fortunes yet to build, and your places yet to win, I can do no better 
than to say to you, that there is nothing in the world that will serve you so well 
as good character, clean morals and an upright life. (Applause. ) I do not care 
what you may choose as your occupation, there is nothing that will count so 
much, or mean so much, or wear so well, as good habits and a spotless name. 
(Applause.) You have done well, in this first step, to enlist under the banner 
of the Republican Party, which, in my judgment, represents the best hopes and 
aspirations of the American people, and embraces within its doctrines and pur- 
poses the honor of the country and the greatest prosperity of aU." (Great 
applause. ) 

CLARION COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 

The 10:26 regular train on the Fort Wayne road, Tuesday, October 6th, 
brought an enthusiastic party to greet Major MoKinley, from East Brady, 
Clarion County, Pennsylvania. The party was not large, not more than 200 
strong, but it was enthusiastic to the greatest degree and its shouts and cheers 
equalled in volume those of many a larger delegation. A detachment of Grand 
Army men and Wall's Comet Band, of East Brady, led the parade. In the 
procession a number of banners were carried. One announced the visitors as 
the "Plutocrats of Clarion County." Another read, "We want an Honest Dol- 
lar and a chance to earn it." Another, "Sixteen to one means nothing to ate." 
Rain was falling when the train steamed into the station and it was thought 
best to hold the meeting in the Tabernacle, but when that was reached 
the shower was nearly over and the march was continued to the McKinley 
home and the reception held on the lawn. jVIr. N. E. Graham was spokesman 
for the party. He said: "Major MoKinley: I have the honor and pleasure of 
introducing to you the McKinley and Hobart Sound Money Club of East Brady. 
We are composed of miners, farmers, business men, mechanics and laboring 
men of aU classes. You have had visiting you many delegations that were larger 
than om*s, but I assure you that you have had none more enthusiastic. Ours is 
one of the few Democratic counties of Pennsylvania. We have thirty-one 
blast furnaces in our county, but on account of the withering hand of Demo- 
cratic legislation, not one of them is in blast to-day. We pledge to you our 

339 



earnest support in the present contest and when the tide of Republicanism has 
swept over the country and you are elected to the Presidency our votes will have 
helped to swell the grand majority." (Applause.) 

When Major McKinley stepped forward to respond he was given an ovation 
of cheers and hurrahs, and all through his address was most heartily applauded. 
When he had concluded each of the visitors, among whom were a number of 
ladies, filed across the porch to shake him by the hand. 



riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Graham and my Fellow Citizens of East Bradt, PHKNaTLVANTA : I 
Tegret that the day is so inclement upon which you make your call, but I am glad 
to meet each of you at my home. I have received a great many delegations, as 
your spokesman has said, in the past two months, many of them larger than 
yours, but from the shouts I have heard to-day, I am sure none of them had 
better lungs than yours, (laughter and applause) and none of them were more 
earnest in their support of Republican principles than the little body of men 
now gathered about me. (Applause.) There is one thing which I think we are 
sometimes too apt to forget — we are too apt to forget what is behind us and to be 
heedless of our own experience. We can hardly realize that to 1893 we had 
reduced the public debt from $2,333,331,308 in 1866 to $570,000,000. We paid off 
during twenty years $1,623,581,673 of that debt, and we were under a protective 
tariff and sound money system when making the largest payments. Two- 
thirds of that great debt disappeared, and whUe we were paying it we were 
building in this country the most splendid industrial enterprises, giving con- 
stant and steady employment to American labor at fair wages and to the 
farmers of the country a just reward for their toil and products. (Applause and 
cries of 'That's right.') During that period, for the greater part of the time, 
we were selling more goods abroad than we were buying abroad. The bal- 
ance of trade was therefore in our favor and that balance settled as it was in 
gold, gave us the good yellow money from the other side of the ocean, ^'ow, 
my fellow citizens, four years ago the people of this country determined 
to change that policy and they did change it. What has been the result? 
(Cries of 'Hard times.') We have since that time created a National d.?bt, 
principal and interest, of three hundred millions of dollars. We have had for ilie 
greater part of that time a deficiency in the Treastury, the Gov.n-n- 
ment not collecting sufficient revenues to meet its current expenses, and labor 
has been illy employed. Your spokesman tells us that in your own county 
thirty-one blast furnaces have been stopped. What does that mean? It m-^ans 
that wages have been stopped. It means that labor has been ucemployed. It 
means that comforts, which they had previously enjoyed, have been taken away 
from hundreds of American homes. It means distress and what is true of your 
county, has been substantially true— possibly not to so large a degree— of otlier 
counties of your State and throughout the entire country. Now, what we want 
to do, whether we are railroad men, or farmers, or professional men, or 
mechanics, or laboring men, is to get back to a policy that will give us a chaiire 
to increase manufacturing, improve our home market, extend our for-ign 
market, and give employment every day in the year to every workingmnn who 
wants work. (Great cheering and cries of 'That's what we want.') If we will 
but follow the lamp of experience and follow in the direction which the 
light of that lamp points us, on the thii-d day of November we will vote d.nvn the 
policies which have brought us these conditions, and vote to contmu? a 

340 



monetary system built upon a solid basis, which will give us the best money in 
the world, a money which panics can not disturb and business failures can not 
depreciate. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'Pennsylvania will vote that 
way.') We want good times, plenty of work, good wages and good money, 
(Applause and cries of 'That's the stuff.') How wiU you vote? (Cries of 'For 
McKiNLEY,' followed by great cheering.) I thank you most heartily for this 
call and bid you all good morning." (Applause.) 

NEW YORK LUnBERflEN. 

A special train arrived at three o'clock, Tuesday afternoon, October 6th, from 
Buffalo and Tonawanda, New York, conveying a large delegation of lumbermen. 
They were met at the Cleveland, Canton and Southern station by the Recep- 
tion Committee and escorted to the Tabernacle. Major McKinley was soon 
driven there to address the visitors. Mxllard S. Burns, who made the intro- 
ductory address, said: 

" Major McKrOTLEY: On the train from Buffalo to-day I was chosen spokes- 
man and I assure you that it is with the greatest satisfaction that I now intro- 
duce this delegation of business men, representing the lumber interests of Buffalo 
and Tonawanda, and express to you our belief and our confidence in you and in 
the great moral, mercantile, commercial and financial principles, for which you 
stand in this campaign. (Applause.) We are not politicians or orators. Our 
delegation is composed alike of Eepublicans and Democrats whose loyalty to coun- 
try is above party ; men who are to-day, united to preserve the country's honor, 
to secure the enforcement of its laws, and to protect the welfare of its citizens. 
We come from the great city of Buffalo and its neighbor, Tonawanda, comprising 
together one of the largest lumber markets in the world. Over one thousand 
million feet of lumber, before the present Aministration began, were handled 
annually at these two points, amounting in value to the vast sum of $30,000,000. 
In this industry thousands of laborers have found steady and profitable employ- 
ment. This vast business is noAv badly demoralized and hundreds of laborers are 
out of work. Once where there was boldness of enterprise, timidity and insecur- 
ity now prevail. We believe this condition arises not from a lack of confidence in 
the stability and permanency of our financial system, but from a want of adequate 
protection from the products of cheap foreign labor. We are here also to show 
to the lumber trade in the West and South and its associated industries, which 
have felt as keenly as we have the general business stagnation, that we are prac- 
tically unanimous in the belief that our business interests demand the election 
of the Eepublican standard bearers this year. A delegation of one hundred and. 
fifty lumber firms from practically one city is one of the most significant dele- 
gations, which will visit you at your home this fall. (Cheers.) The lumber 
traffic has been one of the chief factors in building up our lake marine, which 
has made Buffalo and Tonawanda one of our largest commercial centers. We 
hope our brethren in the lumber trade throughout the country will take new 
courage from our action to-day. Your service in Congress in the interest of 
good government and in support of measures which give American labor em- 
ployment satisfies us that your election to the Presidency will insure confidence 
in the permanency of our financial system and will result, we hope, in a tariff 
that will protect American industries, including that of lumber. We believe 
that every American citizen should earnestly support you and the principles for 
which you stand. Wa are with you ; we are for you ; your cause is our cause. 
You know the right and you have staunchly maintained it, and we honor you 

8J1 



for it, TVe have come to add to the assurances which you are hourly receiving 
from every section of our land that you will be the next President, and to say to 
you that the great Empire State will not be found wanting in loyalty to you 
and your cause ; that Buffalo and Tonawanda will give you an unprecedented 
majority, to make which nearly every lumberman's vote will be cast and 
counted for you and for Republican principles on November 3rd." (Applause.) 
Major McKiNLEY was given a most cordial reception, and liis response was 
most heartily applauded. The party had but little more than one hour's stay 
in the city, the train having been delayed. Rain was still pouring down when 
the Tabernacle meeting concluded, but in spite of it nearly all marched to the 
McKinley home for a look at the famous lawn. 

Major ricKinley' Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : I am very much honored with this visit from the 
lumbermen of Buffalo and Tonawanda. (Applause.) No one can know better 
than the men engaged in your occupations the value of stable money and 
general prosperity. No one can know better than you the effect upon your 
business of the alternate waves of prosperity and depression, and I re- 
ceive the assurances of sympathy and support, so feelingly given to me 
by your spokesman, with a grateful heart and i-eturn my sincere thanks. 
(Applause.) This is a year when party discipline sets loosely upon the 
people of the country. This is a year, as your spokesman has well said, 
that party ties are not strong enough to hold any patriot within it who 
believes that his party has ceased to represent the highest and best interests 
of our glorious Republic. (Applause.) I do not think we appreciate the 
great industry which you represent and of which you are a part — one of 
the greatest in the country. The number of establishments engaged in the 
manufacture of lumber and the other mill products, from logs, bolts, et- 
cetera, are 21,011. The capital invested is the enormous sum of $496,339,968. 
The planing mills number 3,670. The capital invested in them is $120,271,440; 
the cost of material used is $336,482,452; the value of the annual product 
is $588,349,127; and they give employment to 373,085 men, who are paid in 
American wages— or used to be— (great laughter and applause) the sum of 
$136,754,513. (Applause.) We are honored here to-day in having with us these 
enterprising business men, who represent the great lumber interests of Buffalo 
and Tonawanda. These, I believe, constitute practically one market and 
handle, as your spokesman has said, one thousand millions of feet of lumber 
per annum, worth nearly or quite thirty millions of dollars. In 1890, 
the lake trade in lumber at Buffalo was over 282,000,000 feet, and 
at Tonawanda, over 717,000,000 feet. (Applause.) Under the lumber pro- 
visions of the present tariff law the trade at Buffalo has since decreased" 
until in 1895 it was 51,000,000 feet less than in 1890. while that of Tonawnnda 
had shrunk in the same period more than 296.000,000 foot, and Canadian free 
lumber has been encouraged at the expense of the lumber interests of the 
great State of New York and of all the other lumber States of the Amoncan 
Union. I may be pardoned, gentlemen, if I say in this presence, that I be- 
lieve in the policy that gives preference to Buffalo and Tonawanda rather 
than to Montreal iid Toronto. (Tremendous clieering.) Like all the other 
features of free trad" it has helped to make us poor to the advantage of other 
people living within another jurisdiction and who owe no allegiance to our 
flag. (Renewed cheering.) I have noticed by the census figures that the num- 

842 



ber of manufacturing establishments in Buffalo, which always afford under 
ordinary circumstances such great prosperity to the city, increased from 1,183 in 
1880 to 3,559 in 1890. That the value of her manufactures increased from 
$43,000,000 in 1880 to $96,000,000 in 1890. The number of her employes in fac- 
tories increased from 18,000 in 1880 to 50,000 in 1890 ; and the wages paid them 
from $7,500,000 in 1880 to $24,500,000 in 1890. (Great applause.) Could any- 
thing more clearly demonstrate the wisdom of encouraging and protecting a 
system of home production which in a single decade could add 100,000 inhabit- 
ants and all this wealth to a single city? But there may be some who claim 
that protection had nothing to do with this prosperity. (Great laughter.) Well 
if protection did not aid in building up our internal commerce and our marvelous 
rail and water transportation and vast manufacturing industries, I would like 
to know what agency did? There is nothing in our progress more mar- 
velous than the growth of our internal commerce, and I have a comparative 
statement of vessel tonnage, entrances and clearances, which certainly con- 
clusively proves that it ought to be the policy of this Government to constantly 
build it up by every means at its disposal. This table shows that the tonnage, 
entrances and clearances for our Pacific Coast in 1890, for 365 days, was 
4,261,680 tons ; for the Suez Canal, all nations, 365 days, 6,890,094 tons ; for the 
port of Liverpool, 365 days, 16,621,421 tons ; for the port of London, 365 days, 20,- 
692,514 tons. The total tonnage for our Atlantic Coast, 365 days, 22,497,817 tons , 
more than the entii'e tonnage of either Liverpool or London ; (great applause) 
and the tonnage of Lake Erie and the great Lakes, United States and Canada, 
228 days, was 28,991,959 tons — the gi-eatest water commerce of the world. 
(Great applause.) Therefore, I am in favor of encouraging our shipping inter- 
ests in every proper and suitable way, and am in favor of the i*estora- 
tion of a tariff system which builds up home factories, home markets and home 
trade, and which makes this wonderful internal commerce possible. (Great 
cheering. ) AVe know by experience in the last three years that there is nothing 
we could exchange it for and not be woefully cheated in the bargain. (Great 
laughter and applause.) No one knows better than you the effect upon your 
business as well as upon the general business of the country, of having all our 
industrial enterprises at work, and constantly at work, manned with an army 
of woi'kingmen. (Applause.) When the workingmen are steadily employed at 
good wages they buy lots and build homes and you know the effect this had upon 
the magnificent growth of the City of Buffalo between 1880 and 1890 and the 
consequent stimulus to your business. For the past three years we have con- 
tributed something to build up manufacturing in the cities of Europe— which is 
well enough if we had no idle men at home, (great laughter and applause) and 
while we have been doing this, we have been correspondingly doing something 
to drag down manufacturing in American cities, adding our foreign 
rivals to our own injury and sacrifice ; helping foreign markets by surrendering 
our own markets and getting nothing by the process. Is that good business 
methods, lumbermen of Buffalo and Tonawanda? (Cries of 'No,' 'No.') In 
common with other good citizens, you are concerned in the proper settlement 
of the free coinage question. (A voice, ' We will settle it all right,' followed by 
great laughter and applause. ) Did you ever reflect how it would help the prices 
of real estate and of buildings to have all values unsettled and the validity of 
contracts thrown into jeopardy? The liistory of the world proves that real 
estate suffers most severely in every period of financial distress, and it of all 
property recovers the most slowly. Read the history of the great financial de- 
pressions and panics of 1817, 1825, 1837, 1841, 1857, 1873, 1878, 1893 and 1896 and 

343 



'366 if this is not true. ^ The triumph of sound money and protection at the polls 
in November will, in my judgment, restore confidence and thereby help every 
species of business, and when that is done, your business will share in the gen- 
eral advancement and will profit by the general prosperity. (Great applause.) 
I am more than glad to meet these citizens of the city of Buffalo. I know that 
you not only stand for a judicious protective tariff system, but you stand for an 
honest money standard that will be recognized the world over. (Great cheer- 
ing.) And more than that and above that you stand by a government of 
law. (Great applause.) Whatever differences we may have on minor ques- 
tions of public policy, every patriotic citizen this year insists that the honor of 
our (jovernment and its financial integrity shall be sustained and preserved." 
(Tremendous cheering.) 

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, BUSINESS MEN. 

A special train of eight coaches steamed into the Cleveland, Canton and 
"Southern depot on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 6th, bearing one of the finest 
delegations that came / y Canton. These visitors, five hundred in number, came 
from Syi'acuse, New Y>rk. Conspicuous in the party was the Pioneer March* 
ing Club, now known as the Syracuse Escort. The original organization waa 
effected in 186i, and recruits from time to time have perpetuated the club. 
A handsome uniform of light colored ulsters and fatigue caps, with stripes and 
insignia of rank for the officers, gave them a striking appearance, and the mili- 
tary discipline and fine drilling of the rank and file attracted favorable comment. 
Beside? these, there were representatives of thirteen other clubs of Syracuse. 
The heaviest rain of the day was falling when the party arrived, but this did not 
in the least dampen their ardor. With the Grand Army Band, ordcTed for es- 
cort duty by telegraph, a parade was organized, a detachment of wheelmen 
riding behind the band. A march was made to the McKinley home, where 
three clieers were given the nominee, and then the procession counter- 
marched to the Tabernacle, where Major McKixley went to receive their greet- 
ings. The clubs remained standing till he appeared and then gave him a salute 
that made the welkin ring. Daniel Creighton, a Syracuse business man, 
made the introductory address. He said : 

" Major McKiKLEY : Hailing from Central New York, that Republican 
stronghold, (applause) where we pile up the majorities that so many times 
swamp the calculations of Tammany repeaters, we come to tell you tliat the Em- 
pire State is preparing to outdo herself, and will give you the largest majority 
in her history (applause) ; and to assure you that the vote you receive will be 
representative of her whole people. New York refuses to elevate to the office 
of President the representative of a party, which, regardless of the public weal, 
and merely for its oven advancement, stands ready to inaugurate revolution by 
legislation, to practice repudiation, to array class against class, and to inflame 
sectional hate. Rather, when selecting a leader, will she turn to one who al- 
ready has attested his devotion to the Nation, in the field, in the forum, and in 
legislative councils, and who has shown that he has mastered the fundamental 
truth, that a Nation's first duty is to its own people. (Applause.) Four years 
ago we left the good ship Experience, to embark upon the raft Experiment, and 
a weary voyage we have had of it— floating rudderless, compassless, bound for 
nowhere, drifting at the mercy of every storm, vainly looking for something 
to turn up -that might rescue us. Something is going to turn up. The peoHe 
have decided to elect a new captain— one who knows the shoals and quick- 

344 



sands among which our commercial and industrial ventures must sail, and who 
knows how to avoid them. (Applause) We are here to tell him how much faith 
we have in him, and how unanimously the Empire State demands that he assrime 
command. We want to place the helm of the ship of state in the hands of one 
who believes in America for Americans ; in American markets for the products 
of American labor, and in the only policy which can accomplish that end — a 
wise and discriminating policy of protection, under which, Americans may 
acquire the skill necessary to supply Ajnericari wants, utilizing in the process, 
the vast stores of material wealth with which we are blessed. Our delegation 
has the right to speak with authority, for it is representative, embracing 
nearly every class of wage-earners and professional men, including our 
honored Representative *in Congress, whose empty sleeve speaks eloquently of 
his devotion to his country when her territorial integrity was threatened, and 
who now stands steadfastly and inflexibly opposed to any attempt to suUy her 
civic honor. We have with us, also, a stalwart of the stalwarts in the editor and 
proprietor of the Syracuse Journal, whose imtiring zeal in behalf of sound 
Republicanism has never faltered under cloud or storm ; who quickly caught 
and voiced the universal demand for your nomination, and to whose enterprise 
and determination we owe it that we stand in your presence to-day, paying our 
respects to the next President of the United States." (Applause.) 

Three glee clubs came with the delegation and their music at the Taber- 
nacle and elsewhere was much enjoyed. One of the clubs well represented 
was the Thomas O'Neil McKinley Club, a group picture of which, taken on the 
occasion of an outing at Maple Bay, was presented to Major McKinley. This 
club comprised 331 members in the Third and Fifteenth wards of Syracuse, sixty- 
seven of whom were Democrats and thirty-one first voters. As the train did 
not leave Canton until ten o'clock at night, they spent the evening in marches 
and driUs, and Congressman T. L. Poole, Editor Smith, and other prominent 
members of the party made social visits at Major McKinley' s home. The 
parade given by the Canton Republican Clubs on the evening of October 6th 
with the Syracuse delegation presented the most attractive appearance of any 
that was seen dm-ing the campaign. Although the wind blew almost a hurri- 
cane and the chiUy atmosphere froze the very marrow in the bones, almost, 
it did not appear to affect the marchers in the least, and the enthusiasm was 
most hearty. The Syracuse paraders with torches and other accoutrements, 
made one of the neatest marches ever witnessed. They were splendidly drilled, 
and carried a banner inscribed : " Syracuse Escort, Organized 1864." They also 
had a small squad of bicyclers in blue and white sweaters and jaimty caps. 
The Young America Club appeared for the first time in new gold sashes 
and presented a very natty appearance. The clubs marched in the follow- 
ing order: Canton Troop, Young Men's Escort, Grand Army Band, Syra- 
cuse Delegation, First Ward Club with Drum Corps, Second Ward Club and 
Drum Corps, Thayer's Band, Dueber-Hampden Escort Club, Honest Dollar 
Marching Club, Young America Club and Drum Corps. The parade moved North 
on Cleveland avenue to Fourth street, countermarched to Tuscarawas, east on 
Tuscarawas to Market, south on Market to South, countermarched to the Square, 
then North on Market, passing the McKinley residence, where Major McKix- 
LEY, Mi's. McKinley and others i-eviewed the parade from the stand on the 
lawn. After passing, the clubs countermarched to the Square where the Canton 
clubs disbanded, while the Syracuse people paraded about the city until they 
left for home. 



345 



Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fbllow Citizens: I am very glad to know the weather has no de- 
pressing influence upon the Republicans of the State of New York. (Applause.) 
I am glad to learn, what I have long thought, that in sunshine or storm the 
Republicans of the city of Syracuse stand faithfully to Republican prin- 
ciples and are unfaltering in their advocacy of the cause of the Republican 
Party. (Tremendous cheering.) Republican principles are true and eternal. 
(Renewed cheering.) They have survived every defeat and are brighter and 
more glorious to-day — if that be possible — than they have ever been before. 
(Great applause.) Your visit coming at such personal discomfort and so long a 
distance is, I assure you, peculiarly gratifying to me, and you are all welcome 
to my home, city and State. (Great applause.) I recall with much satisfac- 
tion the visit I made to your city two years ago when at the head of your State 
ticket was that splendid Republican and statesman, Levi P. Morton. (Tre- 
mendoiis cheering. ) I recall with what earnestness of feeling, with what en- 
thusiasm, with what splendid spirit, you then cheered Republican principles, 
and I discover to-day that you have not lost your voices. (Great laughter and 
applause.) In common with Republicans everywhere you show an ardent 
interest in the pending campaign of which only four weeks remain. The 
campaign of 1894 was peculiarly a campaign of the people when they expressed 
themselves for the first time after the change of 1892. Their verdict was 
an impressive protest against the tariff legislation of a Democratic CongreSs. 
Men of Syracuse, have you changed your opinion of that legislation since then? 
(Loud cries of 'No,' 'No.') The same question is presented, now as then, with 
the added one which involves the character of our currency and the inviolability 
of our credit. If the free trade policy of the Democratic Congress merited, as I 
think justly, the condemnation you gave it, how much greater must be your 
vote of protest and disapproval when it is coupled with the proposition to enter 
upon the free and unlimited coinage of the silver of the world. (Cries of 
'You'll know after the election.') The people of New York are naturally most 
deeply concerned as to the outcome of the latter issue, possessing as they do 
nearly $600,000,000 in their savings banks, $300,000,000 in their insurance com- 
panies, and $700,000,000 in the capital and loans of their private and national 
banks, in addition to other forms of property, in all of which they would suffer 
immense loss, if we should enter upon an era of dishonest and depreciated cur- 
rency. Greatly as you have suffered in your business enterprises by the tariff 
policy which has prevailed for the past three years, the new issue would still 
further entail loss and injury, and is a change, I believe, that our people will 
not tolerate for an instant, as they value their material interests and the honor of 
this great Nation. (Great applause and ci-ies of 'No, never.') Propei-ty and in- 
vestments are dear to all of them, but I am fully persuaded that now, as so 
many times in the past, neither would weigh in the balance with love of 
country whenever, wherever and however its honor may be assailed. As the 
allied parties in opposition are urging this question, it is not a proposition for 
the free coinage of both gold and silver but practically that of silver alone ; 
and not silver by international agreement, for to that they are opposed, but 
solely, exclusively and defiantly, if you please, the free, independent and un- 
restricted coinage of the silver of the world, regardless of consequences and de- 
spite the certain distress and ruin in which it would involve us all. (A voice, 
'We don't want free silver,' followed by great applause.) Considerations of 
prudence, a faithful regard for our obligations, and proper respect f<ir the 
rights of our citizens as individuals, are all left out of the question, and we are 

346 



Windly to follow wherever they may dare to lead. (Ories of 'We will follow 
McKiNLET.') It is not a leap in the dark, for we know from sad experience 
what a depreciated currency means to every vested interest ; what it means ta 
wages, to labor and property, to credit and to the country itself. Ignoring all ex- 
isting conditions among the great commercial nations of the world and the re- 
quirements of sound finance ; oblivious to every consideration of prudence, care, 
thrift and National integrity, their proposition would engulf us in a system of 
absolute silver monometalism, for they are themselves the only unconditional 
and unqualified monometalists in the United States. Our policy insiu*es the 
use of both gold and silver at an equality. They seek to drive us to silver alone. 
They advocate what they call financial independence, and in the name of inde- 
pendence they appeal to us to debase our currency, and repudiate wholly or 
in part, all our debts and sully our National honor. This we decline forever to 
do. (Great cheering. ) This is not the character of independence which the 
American people love and sustain and are accustomed to exercise. It is inde- 
pendence with honor to which we hold, not an independence to which attaclies 
a taint of dishonor. We would not want that distinction at any price. (Ories of 
"•Right, •' 'Right.') It is neither dignified nor justified in public debate that we 
indulge in harsh names. It is not becoming to any to do so ; nor does it help the 
cause wliich they espouse. I prefer to treat my fellow citizens as being honest in 
their convictions and desirous only of what they believe will promote the public 
•q'^elfare, convinced that if they are wrong they will eventually espouse tlie 
right when at last they see the right. It is their intelligence we seek to reach ; 
it is tlieir sober judgment we invoke ; it is their patriotism to which we appeal. ^ 
It is to persuade, not to abuse, which is the object of rightful public discussion. 
In that spirit I address my fellow citizens and abjure them to reflect before 
they add either dishonor to omr credit or our currency. Let the words of the 
revered statesmen of all parties of the past dissuade them from putting any 
stain upon the financial honor and hitherto good name of this Republic. Syra- 
cuse is not only deeply interested in the rightful settlement of the money ques- 
tion, but she is interested in a true American protective policy. (Great ap- 
plause.) By the census of 1890 you had $17,207,955 of capital invested in your 
numerous 'manufacturing establishments, with an annual product exceeding 
.$25,000,000 in value. So great was your prosperity under a protective system 
tliat your city more than doubled in population from 1870 to 1890, and practic- 
ally quadrupled the volume of her manufactures. (Applause.) What her con- 
dition has been since 1890 you know better than I, but your beautiful city is in- 
deed, most fortunate if it has escaped the business depression and wreck of 
trade in common with every other industrial center of the country. We must 
return to that policy which gave us such wonderful triumphs in manufacturing 
and registered sucli mighty progress in all that goes to make our Nation great, 
strong and powerful, and the people prosperous, contented and happy. May we 
wisely use tlie ballot, my fellow countrymen, to secure these much desired ends. 
1 thank you for this call. I would be glad to remain longer but another delega- 
tion awaits me. I regret that you should have come on what proves so dis- 
agi-eeable a day so that our people are deprived of the opportunity of meeting 
you and extending to you a warmer and brighter welcome. I bid you all good- 
.afternoon." (Great applause.) 

A niCHIQAN DELEGATION. 

One of the notable visits of the campaign was made by the Lenawee County, 
Michigan, delegation, organized in the vicinity of Adrian. The party arrived 
•in a special train of ten coaches on Tuesday, October fith» an the Cleveland, 

347 



Canton and Southern Railway, shortly after the Syracuse party. It was composect 
of about 600 people, ninety per cent, of whom were farmers. They were exceed- 
ingly demonstrative and like the Syracuse people, marched through the rain 
from the depot to the McKinley home before going to the Tabernacle, where 
their reception was arranged. They filed into the hall after the New Yorkers 
and occupied the galleries while the former were being addressed. Then they 
were given possession of the ground floor, and the greeting accorded Major 
McKiNLEY when he appeared to address them was hearty and prolonged. Henry 
C. Smith, of Adrian, made the introductory address which was eloquent and 
entertaining. " We come from Lenawee county, in the State of Michigan," he 
said, " with a few of our neighbors and friends from Jackson and Monroe coun- 
ties, with our greetings and assurances of hearty support to the next President. 
"VYe are 600 strong in favor of honest money and no compromise." He then pro- 
nounced a most eloquent eulogy on the State of Michigan, her resources and 
achievements, predicting that she was to become the great workshop of the 
world. The election of Major McKiniey, he believed would anchor them to the 
shore of prosperity. They still had the people, the resources and all else that 
they possessed in the days of their best achievments except the markets and these 
they expected with the advent of a Eepublican Administration. He assured 
Major McKixLEY that the votes of the farmers could be depended upon 
for the principles for which the Republican Party stands, and expressed 
confidence in his triumphant election. The ovation to Major McKixley was 
renewed when he arose to speak and he was constantly interrupted by applause 
as he proceeded. This party also remained until the evening was well advanced 
and participated in the earlier demonstrations. 

riajor JlcKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I must congratulate you upon your choice of 
spokesman. (Applause. ) He is in danger of being kept in Ohio for the rest of the 
campaign. (Great laughter and cries of ' We can't spare him, Major,' and 'Ohio 
will be all right without him.') It will be just as you say, gentlemen, whether 
he goes or whether he stays, (great laughter) but I wish his eloquent voice 
could be heard in every State in the Union (great applause) speaking for the 
Republican cause and Republican principles. (Renewed applause.) I am glad 
to know that there are farmers in this delegation. (Cheers.) Indeed, every 
delegation that comes to the city of Canton now-a-days is made up of men of 
every avocation, calling and employment in the country. We do not have any 
classes in Republican delegations. (Tremendous cheering and cries of ' Hurrah 
for McKinley.') We are all equal citizens of a common country and propose to 
continue to be equal citizens in privilege and opportunity. (Great cheering.) 
I am glad to meet the Republicans of the State of grand old Zach Chaxpler. 
(Tremendous applause.) I am glad to meet the Republicans of a State which 
almost from its beginning has given uninterrupted majorities for the Republican 
Party. (Cheers.) Can IMichigan be counted on this year? (Loud cries of 
'Yes!' 'Yes!' 'By fifty thousand,' 'Seventy thousand.' and 'Seventy-five 
thousand,' followed by tremendous applause and waving of hats.) Your com- 
ing with such generous assurances gives me gi-eat satisfaction. It is an 
earnest of your desire and purpose in the pending campaign, and an un- 
mistakable evidence of coming victory. (Applause.) The people are in earn- 
est this year. Never before was there such general and personal interest as 
now. What is the meaning, my fellow citizens, of this extreme activity? 

348 



(Cries of ' We want protection,' followed by cheers for McKinley.) It is not a 
passing sentiment; it is deep rooted in the souls of men, and means that they 
are alive to their own best interests and do not intend to take chances any 
more. (Great applause and cries of ' That's the stuff.') They do not mean to 
delegate to any committee the management of the campaign, which involves not 
only the country's welfare, but that of their own homes and families. (Great 
applause.) They are not satisfied with the present situation. They are tired 
of it; they want to escape from it. (Cheers and cries of 'You are 
right.') They are seeking relief. (Cries of 'It's not long until No- 
vember, now,' followed by applause.) They discharged the Eepublican 
Party four years ago, dispensing with its services, and called into ser- 
vice another party. With that party has come a business condition which 
almost beggars description. (Cries of 'That's right.') They longed for a 
change — and have longed for another for now three weary years. (Great ap- 
plause and laughter. ) They remember their condition in 1892. It is a sweet 
memory. (Great laughter and applause.) They have felt their condition since. 
It is a sad experience. (Renewed laughter and applause.) They want to get 
back ; they want to restore what they lost. They have made up their minds 
and are ready to vote. (Cries of 'And vote for McKinley,' followed by tre- 
mendous cheering. ) To me the contention for protection is froin first to last 
a plea i'Oi labor and the agricultural interests of the United States. (Great 
cheering.) It is a recognition of the men who toil, whether in the factory or on 
the farm, and an effort for their advancement and constant betterment. (Great 
applause and cries of 'What's the matter with McKinley?') We want none of 
the harsh and degrading conditions on the free soil of America that prevail in 
some other countries. (Great applause and cries of 'No,' 'No.') And we do not 
mean to have them (tremendous cheering and cries of 'That's the stuff') be- 
cause, unlike other governments of the world, this Government rests upon the 
consent of the governed. (Tremendous applause.) We have no place for the 
law of caste and primogeniture, and want none of their artificial conditions of 
birth and society in our matchless civilization. (Great applause.) The door of 
opportunity swings open to the honest, industrious workingmen, as well as to those 
of every other condition. (Cries of 'That's right.') They talk about our being 
a debtor nation, and because we are a debtor nation they want us to repudiate 
our debts. (Loud cries of 'No,' 'Never.') They say we should be opposed to the 
great commercial countries of the world, and talk of our asserting our independ- 
ence of them by proving ourselves a nation of dishonest debtors. (A voice, 'Hurrah 
for the Republican Party,' followed by great cheering. ) That sentiment, my fel- 
low citizens, will never meet with the endorsement of a majority of the American 
people,(great applause and cries of 'That's right. Major') and of the farmers least 
of all. (Renewed applause.) Why, the greatest creditors in this country 
either in numbers or wealth, are not the railway and mine owners, 
bankers and manufacturers, but the vast army of small capitalists and the 
laboring men found in every community of the land. The Secretary of the 
Treasury says that the industrious and frugal people are to-day the creditors of 
the banks and trust companies, the bviilding associations and other institu- 
tions of that character, to the extent of five billions of dollars, while tlie same 
people, very largely, are the policy holders in our insurance companies, who 
owe ten billions. That debt is not due the rich. It is due to the sons of thrift 
and toil. (Great applause.) It represents in many instances the savings of a 
lifetime, put aside for the families incase accident or death should overtake the 
men upon whom those families depend. (Applause.) So when we talk of scaling 

349 



debts, or decreasing the value of our dollars, let it be constantly borne in mind 
that it is thd plain people, the honest, frugal people, the bone, muscle and 
sinew of the land, that this policy would affect and injure most largely; but 
no matter who it would affect, it is dishonest, and, therefore, must not and 
will not be tolerated by the American people. (Tremendous cheering.) My 
feUow citizens, I thank you for this call. Michigan is a great State. She has 
everything that could make her rich; she has rich minerals, lake and river 
frontage, railroads, mines and splendid soil. (Great applause.) All that 
Michigan wants now is the touchstone of confidence (great applause and cries 
of * Good,* *(jk)od') that which will drive away distrust (cries of ' That's right') 
and the presence of that which encourages investments. (Cries of 'Confidence.') 
She wants a protective tariff, (tremendous cheering and cries of ' That's the 
stuff' ) a tariff that will protect her mines and manufactories and her fields and 
ports ; (renewed cheering) that will protect the home market, the best market 
in the world to the American farmer. (Great applause.) Farmers of Mich- 
igan, the only market we can rely upon is the home market (cries of * Right,' 
'Right') and the home market is good if the wheels of industry are running; 
(great applause and cries of 'Eight,' 'Right') and the wheels of industry are run- 
ning only when American productions are protected against the cheaper pro- 
ducts of other lands. (Great applause.) I need not detain you any longer, but 
I desire to express to you my appreciation of this call, for coming so great 
a distance, and, I am sure, at great discomfort to yourselves, (cries of 'No,' 'No,' 
followed by great cheering) to testify your devotion to the great principles of the 
Republican Party, which, for the moment, I represent; (applause) principles 
which I believe embrace the greatest good to the American people and the 
highest honor for the American Government." (Great cheering.) 



INDIANA'S FIRST flcKINLEY CLUB. 

The first McKinley Club organized in Indiana visited Major McKinley on 
the morning of October 7th. The little party, numbering fifty or sixty, traveled 
all the way from Goodland on the Illino'T border. They had a special car which 
was gaily decorated, and which was attached to the regular morning train on 
the Fort Wayne road. Their arrival was unexpected, and only Sheriff Doll of 
the Reception Committee was on hand to welcome the party and escort them 
to a hotel. After breakfast they called on Major McKinley. They were intro- 
duced by A. P. Jenkins, who said : 

" Major McKinley: It affords us great pleasure to greet you at your home 
in this beautiful city, in this the most favored State in the Union. The im- 
pulse which impelled us to journey through our State, and to travel almost 
across the great Commonwealth of Ohio, is an event in each of our lives that 
we will never forget. Looking to the material welfare of our State and country, 
on the 16th day of May, two and a half years ago, the Republican voters of 
Goodland met and organized, as we believe, the first political club identified 
by your honorable name. The Republicans of our enterprising town and tiie 
thrifty farmers of our beautiful prairie country had ah-eady felt the para- 
lyzing influences of the Democratic cry of free trade and naturally their minds 
and hearts were directed to you as the greatest exemphir of i)rotection and 
reciprocity. So, in our desire to compliment you, we honored ourselves by the 
adoption of the inspiring name inscribed upon our banner. (Applause.) While 
we do not come in the name of the Commonwealth of Indiana, we can safely 

350 



pledge to you her support at the approaeli'ng election, and wc believe we are- 
fully justified in declaring to you that at this moment we are Eepuhlican repre- 
sentatives of a Eepublican State." (Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens of Goodland, Indiana: It gives me great pleasure 
to meet you this morning. It is always a distinction to have a political organ- 
ization adopt one's name. It is especially gi-atifying to be assured that, if you 
are not the first club in the United States to thus honor me, you are certainly 
the first in the State of Indiana — and I thank you for it. (Applause.) We are 
engaged in a great iN^ational contest, the result of which will determine the 
public policies which shall govern our country for years to come. Government 
is always an interesting study. There is a great deal of misunderstanding as 
to how our Government gets its money, and how it pays it out. There are some 
people who seem to believe that the way for the Government to get money is 
to make it. Our Government gets money by taxation andean get it in no other 
way. There are three or four sources from which the United States gets money. 
The chief means of revenue are through tariffs and internal taxation. Then we 
get some money from the sale of public lands, and from the postal service. From 
these several sources there comes the money that is annually required to meet 
public expenses. It takes about four hundred and eighty million dollars a year 
for all purposes — one and one-third million dollars each day are required to 
keep our Government's wheels in operation. Now, if the Government had the 
power to make money, or had the power to double the value of a thing by its 
stamp or fiat, it would not need to resort to taxation — it would simply set its 
mints to work and make the necessary amount to pay the running expenses. 
If this theory were true, it could have paid off the National debt long years ago. 
There is another thing I would have you all know: that the Government can 
not get gold or silver except through the custom houses or the internal revenue 
offices without giving something for it, just as you and I have to do. Now, how 
does the Government distribute this money?. Some one asked me that ques- 
tion, the other day. The Government distributes its annual receipts to its 
creditors under appropriations of Congress. That is the way it is distributed to 
the army, the navy, for public improvements, for rivers and harbors, for our 
great postal service, for the expenses of Congress, for sustaining the Judiciary, 
to pay the principal and interest of the public debt, the pensions of soldiers, 
and to other creditors of the Government. There is no other way for the Gov- 
ernment to distribute money except to pay it to the people to whom it is 
indebted. (Applause.) There is no such thing as a general distribution of 
money by the Government of the United States. The point I wish to make is 
this — that the Government does not create money, and that whatever money it 
needs it has to collect from taxes, either by a system of direct taxation or by a 
system of indirect taxation known as a tariff ; and that if the Government wants 
to have any gold and silver minted for its own use it has to pay for that 
gold and silver just as you and I would have to pay for it if we wanted it for 
our own purposes. (Applause and a voice, 'There is nothing without labor, 
Major.') The idea that the Government can create wealth is a mere myth. 
There is nothing that can create wealth except labor, as my friend to the right 
puts it. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') Which is the best way to get 
this money is one of the problems of this campaign. Is it easier to raise it by 
direct taxation — by taxing the people in their occupations, their personal 

351 



property and lands, or is it not better to raise it by putting a tax upon th» 
foreign products that come into this country to seek a market in the United 
States? (Applause and cries of 'You are right.') The latter is the policy and 
purpose of the Republican Party. (Cries of 'Good.') The Republican Party 
believes that the great bulk of the money required to pay the expenses of the 
Government should be raised by putting a tax upon the foreign products that 
come in and compete with American products. (Applause and cries of 'That's 
good' and 'That's right.') If we could create money by merely starting our 
mints running then there would be no necessity for taxes at all. (Cries of 
'That's so.') Now, there is another thing I want to talk about just for a 
moment. We want our money good. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') 
I don't care what employment we may be engaged in — whether we work in the 
shop or on the farm, or in a profession, we want every dollar we have in cir- 
ulation as good as our flag (applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good') and as un- 
questioned as the currency of any country in the world. That is the purpose 
of the Republican Party to-day. (Applause.) And we intend to suport this 
Government by taxes upon foreign imports and internal revenue ; and we in- 
tend to have enough revenue in the Public Treasury, if the people elect us, to 
pay our bills, (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and cheers.) The Government is just 
like an individual when it has not enough income to pay its expenses — it has t» 
give its notes to raise money; it has to do that or quit business. (Cries of 
'That's right.') And when the United States has not enough money to pay its 
running expenses the only thing that can be done is to borrow money. That is 
what has been done for the last three and a half years and that is what we pro- 
pose to stop. (Loud cheers.) I thank you, my fellow citizens, for this call, and 
it will give me great pleasure to meet you every one individually." (Loud 
cheers.) 

TWO OHIO COUNTIES. 

About noon on "Wednesday, October 7th, several special trains ari'ived on 
the Cleveland, Canton and Southern railroad and several others on the Cleve- 
land Terminal and Valley. They brought delegations with greetings to Major 
McKiNLEY from Ashland and Geatiga counties. The Ashland party numbered 
about 400 people and those from Geauga county about 3,000. The weather was 
cold and disagreeable and it was thought best to hold the meetings in the Tab- 
ernacle. Those who arrived first marched up Market street, past the McKinley 
home preceded by bands fi'om Ashland, Parkman and Burton, and then return- 
ed to the hall, where Major McKinley joined them. While awaiting the 
arrival of the other sections, music was rendered by the bands, and by the 
Goodland, Indiana, Glee Club. The first crowd so nearly filled the hall that it 
was concluded that the second contingent from Geauga county could not be 
accommodated and Major McKinley addressed the Ashland people particularly, 
in response to the introductory remarks of Dr. G. Hess. When this party had 
filed across the stage to shake hands with Major McKixley the other Geauga 
people entered and all were introduced by Judge J). W. Canfield, of Chardon. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen and My Fellow Citizens: — I had expected to 
concentrate the visiting Ohio people into one audience to-day, but the delega- 
tions this year are so large that no hall will hold them. (Laughter and ap- 

352 



plause.) I thought I might with propriety Speak to the citizens of Ashland, 
Geauga and Cuyahoga counties in one body, for this year neither county, State, 
sectional, class, nor party lines impede the progress of Eepublican principles. 
(Continuous applause.) We are united in sentiment and in purpose, whether 
we live in one section or another of our common country. , We are all fighting 
for good government, the supremacy of public law, the integrity of our courts, 
the honor of the National name, and the return of better times. (Great cheer- 
ing.) I am peculiarly gratified to meet my old friends and constituents of Ash- 
land county. (Applause.) Eighteen years ago your county was in the Con- 
gressional district for which I stood as a candidate for Congress. I remember 
to have gone to your county, as a young man, almost an entire stranger to your 
people, but I shall never forget the warm and cordial welcome you gave me, and 
the splendid support you gave to the Republican Party that year. (Applause. 
and cries of 'We will do it again.') Thrown into a strange district, that was 
thought to be impregnable and unconquerable, with a Democratic majority of 
over 2,000, the Republicans, assisted by Democrats in every county of the dis- 
trict, turned that Democratic majority into a Republican majority of more 
than 1,300. (Applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') That year, as the older men 
in this audience will recall, I was contending for two things. In every speech I 
presented what I regarded as two great overmastering issues. One was the 
return to specie payments and the other was the continuance of a protective 
tariff policy that would preserve our own market for the American farmers and 
our factories for the American workingmen. (Great cheering.) We are con- 
tending this year for the same principles. On the other hand the allied parties 
of the opposition insist that this country shall take a step backward. Ever 
since 1879 we have been on a gold basis, on the solid rock of honest finance and 
of honest payment of debts, public and private. (Great applause.) It is pro- 
posed now that we shall enter upon an era of not only a depreciated silver dol- 
lar, but of depreciated paper money ; to that the Republican Party answers, 
'No, forever no.' (Tremendous applause.) Some people seem, sometimes, to 
despair of the future of the United States. Nobody need have any apprehen- 
sion on that score. The United States is too great and too resourceful to have 
its progress impeded for any considerable length of time by any political party. 
(Applause.) This year we stand, as in 1878, for the restoration of a protective 
policy. In 1802, a year the most prosperous in our history, we were under such 
a policy. Every nian in this country who wanted to work could find it, and 
every man who worked in this country in 1892 got better wages than he ever 
received in any other period of our history or in all the world's his- 
tory. (Great cheering.) The farmers of this country had the best home 
market in the world ; had more and better paid consumers than they had ever 
had before. But that has all changed. The newspaper advertisements in 1892 
used to read 'Men wanted.' The advertisements that run in the newspapers 
to-day read 'Situations wanted.' (Great laughter and tremendous applause.) 
Our policy seeks to give a situation to every man of this country who wants to 
work. The policy of partial free trade has put the workingmen in a situation 
which entails upon them heavy loss, and upon every farmer of the country 
great injury. What we want to do, this year, rny fellow citizens, is to stand by 
these great principles. I make no personal appeal to you; I make no-mere 
party appeal. I appeal to you in the name of country to give your votes to that 
party which you believe will subserve your highest interests, and promote the 
greatest prosperity to our common country. (Applause and cries of 'That's 
what we are going to do.') I have been more than pleased this morning to 

353 



meet from the old county of Ashland some of my comrades of the war — mem- 
bers of Company G of the Twenty-third Ohio, with whom I served for more 
than four years. I am glad to greet them. No braver men ever \rent to battle 
than the members of that company. (Applause.) And what I say of Company 
G of the Twenty-third Ohio, can be said of every one of the volunteers which 
Ashland County furnished for the preservation of the Union. (Tremendous 
applause.) As in those days you knew none as Democrats or Republicans, but 
all as patriots, so this year I bid you obliterate party lines and all party distinct- 
ions and unite in sustaining the honor of the country, in maintaining law and 
order, and public tranquility and assist in returning a policy that will take care 
of the American workshop and the American market, and defend thein against 
"the workshops and markets of the whole world." (Vociferous cheering.) 

GEAUGA COUNTY'S PRIDE. 

Judge D. W. Canfield, spoke on behalf of Geauga County. He said: 
"Major McKinley: As citizens of old Geauga, that mother of counties, we 
appear to pay our respects, not only to you personally, but as the candidate of 
«, great party and because you represent the highest type of American citizen- 
^ship. "We recognize your great ability as a statesman, loyal soldier and honored 
citizen of the Republic, and beg to assure you of our cordial and earnest sup- 
p irt. (Applause.) The platform on which you stand, we heartily approve. We 
believe that if the principles embodied in the platform of our opponents adopted 
at Chicago and endorsed by their candidate, are carried into effect the result 
will prove disastrous to the best interests of the country. That there would, 
in fact, remain but a single step to communism and anarchy. Geauga County, 
as you are aware, is one of the smallest counties in the State, but as citizens of 
that county we take pride in the fact that no county can show a smaller per- 
centage of illiteracy and crime, or a larger Republican majority in proportion 
to popul.<ition. (Applause.) Being almost exclusively an agricultural county 
our citizens recognize that the prices'of many agricultural products are low, 
but they do not believe that the true remedy for this is to debase or inflate the 
cuTency ; on the contrary tliey believe that the true remedy is to increase the 
money making power of the people by protecting American labor. (Applause.) 
They believe in the use of both gold and silver, and so believing demand that 
the purchasing power of tlie silver dollar shall be equal to that of a dollar in 
gold, and tliat the integrity of the Govei-nment shall be strictly maintained. 
For tlie promotioji of these principles, we intend to contribute our full share to 
tl)e giorious triumph at the coming election, which shall place Ohio's honored 
son, William McKinley, in the Pi-esidential chair." (Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" Judge Caxfield and My Fellow Citizens : I am glad to have at my home 
citizens from the county of Geauga. I may be pardoned if I express in this 
presence a just pride in the glorious State to which we belong. That pride is 
increased when I remember that, not only the people of the Western Reserve, 
but ll;e people of every section of the State have met every crisis with courage, 
pat^ioLi^m, and fidelity. The people of Oliio have improved every opportunity 
that has been presented to them to add honor to the American name, and to 
bring liberty and opportunity to the people. Old Geauga County, though the 
sitiailest of our counties, has never faltered in all the years of the past in its 

354 



devotion to the Republican cause. I am glad to know that this year nior t].:)w 
in former years, you are quickened to the highest effort for the success of that 
cause in the pending campaign. In 1860, in the National Republican Conven- 
tion, which met in the city of Chicago, Ohio had two candidates for the Presi- 
dency. One was Salmon P. Chase, and the other was Benjamin F. Wade— botli 
honored names in Ohio's history, a-nd both names that h-ave added luster to the 
annals of our country. (Great applause.) When the third ballot was readied 
in that convention, Mr. Lincoln led, and had 231^^ votes. He lacked just otic 
and one-half votes of being nominated for the Presidency of the United ritaies. 
It was at this critical moment that an Ohioan, David K. Cartter, once a repre- 
sentative in Congress, arose in his place and transferred four votes from Salmon. 
P. Chase to Abraham Lincoln, and made him the nominee of the Republican 
Party. (Tremendous applause.) I am glad he did it. Some other State might 
have done it, but the fact remains that Ohio did it, and helped to give to the 
country that immortal name. (Applause.) Ohio has been no laggard in the 
pathway of civilization ; she has never hesitated in any emergency ; she has 
never faltered in any crisis ; she has measured up to the highest opportunity of 
responsibility and duty ; she has never struck a blow except for liuuian liberty ; 
she has never had an aim that has not been American, nor a purpose that has 
not been patriotic. 'In the fore front of every battle has bt-en seen her 
burnished mail,' and in the gloomy rear of every retreat has been heard her 
voice of constancy and of courage. Ohio, this year, will neither pause nor falter 
but stand for country and for country's honor, (Applause.) We all takf a just 
pride in the Republican Party. Glorious Old Party ! No other has such a. 
matchless history ; no other has achieved such mighty triumphs ; no other has 
done so much for all the races of man as the grand old party to which we 
belong. (Continued applause.) AVith the aid of hundreds of thousands of 
Democrats, it saved the Union. It enthroned liberty. Itput into the Constitution 
of the United States, where it had never been before, civil and political equality 
to every citizen, everywhere. (Great cheering.) It made the Union stronger 
than it ever had been before, and it preserved to us and our posterity one flag, 
and only one— the starry banner of the free. (Great cheering.) It made the 
old war greenback, that traveled with the soldier on his marches, as good as gold 
and redeemable in gold. (Loud applause.) It resumed specie payments and has 
preserved the National honor unsullied to this hour and has given to this Nation 
a credit the like of which it never had before. Will that party now take a step 
backward ? Will the old party lower its flag ? (Cries of 'Never,' 'Never.') Men 
of Geauga County, will you stand this year for National honot and National 
integrity and the preservation of public faith ? (Tremendous applause and 
cries of 'Yes, we will.') Your spokesman has well said that your county is made 
up largely of farmers and agi-icultural people. You have no factories to speak 
of; you have no great manufacturing establishments. What you want is the 
want of every agricultural community in the land — somebody to consume what 
you produce. The nearer you can get those consumers to you the better off 
you will be ; and then, when you have those consumers near at home, you want 
them to pay you for your products in money that will be unquestioned every- 
where in the world. (Continuous cheering.) You want a dollar that is worth 
a dollar ; you do not want a fifty-two cent dollar. The silver men say to one 
audience that our doUars are too dear and to another audience that the new 
free coinage silver dollar will be just as good as the present silver doUar. Now, 
if that is so, it will be just as dear as the present dollar. (Cries of 'Right you 
ane,' and applause.) We want good money in this country and we want good 



morals (cries of 'Good,' 'Good') and wo want public and private honesty, (great 
applause) we do not propose to be a nation of repudiatoxs. (Tremendous 
applause.) I thank you, my fellow citizens, for this call. It is an encourage- 
ment to the cause, and it is an inspiration to every Republican. I am glad to 
welcome you. I will wtitch with deep interest the returns from your county, to 
see whether Judge Oakpield is a true prophet when he says you will give the 
largest majority this year you ever gave to the Republican Party." (A voice, 
"Judge Canfield don't lie, either," followed by three cheers for McKinley.) 

ENTHUSIASTIC WEST VIRGINIANS. 

A magnificent delegation from Parkersburg, West Virginia, came over 
the Cleveland Terminal and Valley road on Wednesday, October 8th. There 
were over 900 people on the train including a number of ladies. The Citizen's 
Band of Parkersburg and a drum corps rendered good music as the crowd 
marched through the city. Canton Troop did escort duty and piloted the pro- 
cession. Spokesman Caldwell said in closing his pleasant introduc- 
tory address: "We, as a part of the thousands of staunch, loyal and 
progressive people of the mountains and plateaus of our young and beautiful 
State, congratulate you, sir, and the country, on your selection, and 
pledge to you, and the great American policy and principles you rep- 
resent, our hearty support. We predict that for the first time in thirty 
years, you, as a Republican candidate for President, will receive the electoral 
vote of West Virginia, the legitimate offspring of the National struggle of 
1861." (Applause.) 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Caldwell, Ladies and Gentlemen and My Fellow Citizens: I wel- 
come the citizens of Parkersburg and of the State of West Virginia, I greet you 
most cordially and thank you for this testimony of your zeal for the Republican 
cause and for your faith in its triumph on the third day of November. (Ap- 
plause.) I thank your eloquent spokesman for his generous assurance that for 
the first time the electoral vote of your State will be given to the Republican 
Party in 1896. (Applause.) No State in the Union made greater progress from 
1870 to 1892 (in some instances under very adverse circumstances) than 
West Virginia. You have mineral wealth, the development of which has only 
just begun, and which will be .greatly promoted or retarded according to the de- 
termination of the people as to the industrial policy adopted this year. You 
have, too, a rich agricultural State, dependent upon the prosperity of the cities 
and the towns, which in turn depend upon the prosperity of their manufacto- 
ries. It needs only the touchstone of confidence and the assurance of stability 
to enable West Virginia to achieve still higher rank and place and to benefit her 
own population, and add to her own growth and that of the Republic. (Ap- 
plause.) Had your onward march of 1892 remained unchecked and your 
growth and development been unimpeded, there would not now be an idle man 
in West Virginia, or a farmer whose products would not bring him living prices. 
(Applause.) The interests of your State are identical and are not differfnt 
from the interests of every other section of our country. They are idenlifal 
with the interests of my State. What will benefit the one will benefit the ot Ikt ; 
what will injure the one will injure the other. Thetwo have no divided inter- 
ests. They are one and indivisible. No longer are they separated in interests 

356 



or fraternal affections by the unhappy events of thirty-five years ago. (Ap- 
plause.) The wounds then inflicted have been healed. The bitterness then en- 
gendered has been assuaged. The fires of passion tken burning have been 
quenched. We are all an equal part of the glorious Union of States. All equally 
interested in preserving its indissolubility. All alike concerned in the strength 
and integrity of the Union ; in upholding public law ; in maintaining that great 
bulwark of American rights, the Supreme Court of the country. The old 
flag waving its folds of protection over us, is now as dear to the hearts of the 
men of the South as to the men of the North. (Tremendous applause.) It will 
be a glorious day in the history of our country when the North and the South 
shall be united in control of the Government, brought together in the execution 
of a common purpose, agreeing in a common policy for the good of all, and to- 
gether making laws and administrations which shall be National in fact as well 
as in name. We will never reach our full and imperial power as a Government 
until that unity shall demonstrate its presence in a National triumph which 
shall be the joint work and common triumph of all sections of our country. 
This is my aim and prayer ; and if this contest shall result in promoting that 
greatly to be desired result, it will be the gi-eatest victory for the Union and 
American destiny since Appomattox. (Tremenduous applause.) Parties, my 
fellow citizens, are only the instruments in the hands of the people for the ac- 
complishment of the good of the country. They should not require our fealty 
or allegiance a single moment after they cease to be instruments for public 
good and for public weal. Party attachments, strong as they are, should be 
quickly broken, if to continue them means injury and hurt to the country's 
highest interests and the welfare of all the people. (Eenewed cheering.) No 
patriotic citizen can with self respect, mindful of the interests of his State and 
country, foUow any political organization, no matter how long he has 
been a member of it, when that political organization assails the currency and 
credit and industrial independence of the Government. (Great applause.) Nor 
should former political opinions be closed against revision when experience ha& 
demonstrated that those opinions are clearly wrong. I do not believe there are 
many men in this country, no matter what they have thought in the past, who 
wiU not now say that free trade, or so-caUed tariff reform, has been proved by the 
experience of the past four years to be a signal and disastrous failure. (Great 
applause.) It has failed, utterly failed, in every prophecy, promise and expect- 
ation . It has not secured a single thing that its advocates said would follow 
its adoption. (A voice, 'Not one,' and laughter and applause.) It has not 
served a single American interest. It has served the interests of other nations 
of the world, but has given no benefit to the American people. (Applause and 
cries of 'Eight you are,' and 'That's so.') It has not helped the laborer, the- 
farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the lumberman, the miner or the 
trader. It has not helped either the producer or the consumer. It has hurt, 
both alike, for producer and consumer are alike interdependent, and one can 
not prosper without the other, and the one can not be hurt without the other 
feeling it. (Great cheering.) It has given the Treasury an inadequate revenue, 
the laborer inadequate and insuflBcient employment, and the farmer disappointing 
and ruinous prices for his products. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') 
Why, think for a moment, farmers of West Virginia, that during the first year 
of this so-called tariff reform law we imported $383,000,000 worth of agi-icultural 
products from other countries. Is that the way to bring prosperity to the 
American farmer? (Loud shouts of 'No,' 'No.') The way to do that is to buy 
your products at home (cries of 'Eight,' 'Eight,' and applause; and make your 

357 



tariff high enough to keep the prodncts of the cheaper labor and the cheaper 
lands of other countries from destructive competition with our own producers. 
(A voice, ^That's the time you hit 'em,* and laughter and applause.) You would 
have thought if this tariff reform revenue law would have done anything it 
would at least have raised enough money to run the Government. (Laughter 
and applause.) It has not even done this ; as a producer of revenue it has been 
an utter failvure ; and as a producer of wealth, or wages, or markets, or prices 
to the farmer, its failure is deplorable and unprecedented. (Great cheering.) 
It did not command the support of half of the Democratic Party of the country 
when it was put into that public enactment known as the Wilson Tariff Law. It 
did not even commend itseK to the President, who refused to sign it, while its 
administration has confirmed the wisdom of the men in and (yut of the Demo- 
cratic Party who condemned it and would have nothing to do with it. It haa 
been disapproved by the most sweeping majorities ever known at every election 
since its enactment. Every time the people of this country have had a 
chance they have given that law a blow. (A voice, 'That's what they will do 
again,' followed by applause and laughter.) My fellow citizens, has there 
been anything in tlie working of that law to change the solemn verdict render- 
ed in 1894, when you carried the State of West Virginia and performed a most 
important part in making the National House of Representatives Republican 
and in giving one Republican vote to the Senate of the United States? (Cries 
of 'No,' 'No,' and great cheering.) Every day of its operation only confirms the 
justice of that verdict and 'insures a more decisive one of like character on the 
third day of November. (Renewed applause.) We want to get back to what 
we know is good. (Applause.) We have tried experience and we know that 
when we have been on the ship of experience we sailed safely into port, and 
when we have taken to the raft of experiment we have always drifted to disaster. 
(Loud and continuous applause.) We know what makes an easy Treasury and 
a good working balance called a surplus. We know what encourages home in- 
dustries and home development; we know what gives employment and wages to 
labor and prices for farmers' products. Nor should we forget that what' haa 
been lost was once won and can be won again. (Applause.) Returning to 
these conditions and continuing the use of an unquestioned currency based 
upon gold — the best money known to the world, we will restore confidence and 
start this great country, which for four years has been sitting in the shadow of 
doubt and discontent and suffering, on its triumphal marcli of progress and 
prosperity. Will you contribute to that result?" (Loud cries of "Yes, yes, we 
will," and continuous cheering.) 



PITTSBURG ITALIAN-AMERICANS. 

A special train on the Fort Wayne Railroad arrived about noon Thursday, 
October 8th, with an enthusiastic delegation of Italian-Americans from Pitts- 
burg with greetings and assurances of support for Major McKinlet. An ex- 
cellent band headed the paradg into which they were organized by Canton Troop 
and Reception Committee. The reception was held on the lawn, the weath- 
er being all that could be desired for an outdoor meeting. Lewis Beggixo waa 
the spokesman of the party. He said : 

"Major MoKinley: I have been assigned the pleasing task of introducing 
the delegation of Italian -Americans, members of the United Italian Republican 
Club of Pittsburg. These humble voters are here to gi-eet you as the 

858 



gallant standard bearer who stands for the promotion of the best interests of all 
who labor for their daily bread. They yield to nobody in devotion to the tra- 
ditions and principles of the glorious old party." (Applause.) 

flajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : I am indeed glad to meet my fellow countrymen of 
Italian birth and descent who have honored me with a visit. I thank you for 
having brought the sunshine. (Laughter and applause.) I appreciate this 
visit, because it means that you have an interest in common with all your other 
fellow citizens in the welfare of the country of your adoption. (Cries of 'We 
have,' and applause.) And because you feel that in the campaign now upon us 
there is much involved in the riglitful settlement of the questions which are 
presented. "We are a Nation of working people ; we recognize no caste, and will 
tolerate none beneath our flag. (A voice, 'We know it,' and great applause.) 
We are a Nation of political equals. The voice of one citizen is as potent as the 
voice of another ; and their united voice, when constitutionally expressed, is the 
law of the land. The great English statistician, Mr. Mulhall, declares that 
'No other civilized country (than the United States) could boast of forty-one 
millions of instructed citizens in a total population of less than seventy millions, 
all of whom are equal beneficiaries of the advantages and blessings and opportu- 
nities of free government.' I may be pardoned if I recall his words uttered 
about a year ago from the standpoint of a dispassionate student, for they so 
well point to the United States as the most favored Nation in the world. I 
hope you have found it so. (Loud cries of 'We have.') He says: 'If we were 
to take a survey of mankind in ancient or modern times, as regards the physical, 
mechanical and intellectual forces of nations, we find nothing to com- 
pare with the United States. The physical and mechanical power which 
has enabled a community of woodcutters and farmers to become in less than 
one hundred years the greatest nation in the world, is the aggregate of the 
strong arms of men and women applied to the useful arts and sciences of every 
day life. The power that traces a furrow in the prairie, sows the seed, reaps 
and threshes the ripe grain ; the power that converts wheat into flour, that 
weaves wool or cotton into textile stuffs and garments ; the power that lifts the 
mineral from the bowels of tlie earth, and forges iron and constructs railroads; 
the power that builds up towns and cities — in a word, whatever force is directed 
for the production, convenience or distribution of the necessary comforts or lux- 
uries of life, may be measured at each national census with almost the same 
precision as that which the astronomer indicates the distance of the heavenly 
bodies.' Gentlemen, no greater praise could be given than this, and less could 
not be accorded in justice to us. It is this attractive spectacle which invites the 
men of other nationalities and lands to make this free land their home. We 
have made marvelous strides in every channel of commerce. We have subdued 
and changed the voice of the wilderness. We have transformed our great plains 
and prairies from their primeval verdure into fields of beauteous grain. This has 
not been the accomplishment of a century ; it has been really the work of a third 
of a century , for not more than forty years have elapsed since we entered upon our 
most remarkable development. The only limit there is to American progress is 
the limit which Americans will place upon themselves by the ballot. (Applause.) 
The importance of the issues of this campaign cannot be overstated. What are 
they? First, shall we sustain law and order and uphold the tribunals of justice 
which in all the trying times of the past have been our greatest safety and our 

359 



pride? Shall we do this, men of Italian birth and descent? (Cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') 
Shall we continue a financial policy which is safe and sound, and gives to us » 
money, with which to do business, that is stable in value and wliich connnaiids 
respect not only at home, but in every commercial nation of the world? Shall 
we restore the industrial policy by which this Nation has become mightier than 
all the other nations of the world? (Cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') On these quesiious 
there should not be two opinions ; and I believe this year the people of ihis 
country, of every nationality, of every race and clan, loyal as they are to tliis 
Government of their adoption, will unitedly sustain the authority of law, and 
the Constitution, (cries of 'We will,' and applause) continue an honest financial 
system and restore that industrial policy which will secure work, wages, em- 
ployment and comforts for labor, profitable investment for capital, and good 
markets for the farmer. (Cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') I bid you, my 
fellow citizens, warm and generous welcome. I am especially gratified to be 
assured that our Italian fellow citizens are enrolled this year in the ranks of the 
great Republican Party, (great applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good') and in a 
patriotic effort to achieve victory for themselves, for their labor, for their oc- 
cupations and for their country." (Three cheers were given for the "next Pres- 
ident" as he closed his address.) 

HOOSIER STATE VISITORS. 

A small but enthusiastic delegation from Logansport, Indiana, was the second 
to appear upon the McKinley lawn on October 8th. The visitors were in charge 
of Attorney W. T. Wilson, Dr. J. Z. Powell and Mr. S. D. Brandt. jMi-. Wilson 
acted as spokesman and made but a few brief remarks by way of introduction. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : Your presence from a neighboring State, bringing 
assurances of devotion to the Eepublican Party and of support to the ticket this 
year, is most gratifying. I welcome you all. Your presence here means much. 
It means that you have a deep concern for the welfare of your country, and that 
you believe that welfare will be best subserved by a Republican triumph on the 
third day of November. If the financial plan advocated by our allied opponents 
be practical and sound, then the framers of our Constitution idled away very 
much time and wasted considerable effort in providing a plan for raising money 
to conduct this Government. If their new departure, so-called, be in any sense 
practical, then we don't need any tariff laws in this country, any tax laws, any 
custom houses, or any tax collectors anywhere ; because if you can make money 
out of nothing by the mere breath of Congress, then it is idle to impose taxes 
upon the people to bear the burden and expense of conducting the Government. 
(Applause.) If, by mere fiat, whether it be fiat to the extent of fifty or to the 
extent of a hundred cents,— if the Government, by a mere act of Congress, can 
make money, then all the work of Washington and Jefferson, Hamilton and 
Clay, and all of the financiers and statesmen of this country was mere idleness 
andfolly. (Laughter.) Buttheir work was not idle or foolish. The Government of 
the United States cannot create something out of nothing, (gi-eat applause) and 
the man or the party that teaches that doctrine teaches falsehood. Why? That 
which costs a man nothing is not worth much, is it? And if this Government 
can create money without any cost to itself, then that money is valueless- 
valueless for every purpose. It is value in money that makes it a stable medium 

360 



of exchange among the people. We must get over the idea in this country that 
the Government makes money. The Government gets its money just as the 
citizen gets his money, by giving something for it. (Applause.) ©The Govern- 
ment raises hundreds of millions of dollars every year by taxing its people or 
the products of other people coming into the United States. The latter is the 
policy of the Eepublican Party. (Great cheering. ) We do not believe that the 
Government should make money by setting its printing presses and its mints to 
work, but that the best thing it can do for its revenues is to put a tariff on foreign 
products of every kind that compete with American products, and make that tariff 
high enough, too, to protect the American producer. (Applause. ) We simply want 
to observe the law of self-preservation, to look after ourselves, to look after our 
individual occupations and employments, and after the American home which lies 
at the foundation of society, of every community, of every State, and of the 
Nation. There comes up from the plain American home a sentiment for good 
government and patriotism, such as can be found scarcely anywhere else in the 
world. Not only, my fellow citizens, do we want a good tariff, but we Want 
good money. (Great applause.) We want that money to be worth one hundred 
cents on the dollar, and we do not want it to be worth a penny less. We want 
it to be as honest as the Government itself. (Applause.) We want it to be cur- 
rent everywhere in the world. We want it respected everywhere, just as our flag 
is respected. (Great cheering.) Then we propose to maintain government by 
law and government under law. We propose to sustain public order and publffe 
tranquility, and stand by the Federal Judiciary — these tribunals which are our 
anchor of safety in every time of trouble. v^There never was an aim that the Ee- 
publican Party ever had that did not embrace the good of all the people. 
(Cries of 'That's right.') There never was a Eepublican purpose that did not 
seek the hojior and integrity of our Government. There is one thing our old 
party never did — it never struck a blow except for human freedom. (Great 
applause.) It never made a law that did not embrace every American interest. 
It never had a purpose which was not patriotic, and it stands this year as it has 
stood in all the years of the past, for public safety, for public honor, good 
morals, good government, good laws, and for a country whose cui-rency and 
credit will not be questioned anywhere in the world. I thank you for this call. 
It will give me great pleasure, if it be your wish, to greet you personally." 
(Great applause.) 

FIRST VOTERS OF CLEVELAND. 

The First Voters of Cleveland came to Canton on the afternoon of October 
8th. They left their train, a special on the Cleveland, Canton and Southern,, 
with a shout and a hurrah, and that was their program all the time while in 
the city. There were about one thousand of them handsomely uniformed. 
They came to celebrate the sixteenth anniversary of the visit of the first voters 
of the city of Cleveland to President Garfield at his Mentor home. The Club 
was splendidly drilled and the members received the plaudits of thousands of 
Cantonians and people of other delegations who filled the sidewalks while the 
regiment passed. Major McKinley reviewed the parade from the stand at the 
front of his lawn. But in reaching this he was nearly torn to pieces by the visitors 
wno remained there determined to shake hands with him. As he worked his way 
through the crowd, people endeavored to catch his hand or arm or coat and the 
whole crowd swayed toward the stand in one mad rush. Every one was deter- 
mined to get upon the little structure and before the crowd could be restrained,, 

381 



its collapse was threatened. It creaked and swayed under tlie weight, but 
those already upon it realized the danger and set to work at once to lightt-n 
it. The greeting which the first voters gave Major McKini.ey wlien lie ap- 
peared upon the porch to address them was vociferous and prolonged, The 
deafening din was contributed to by the band, the drum corps, the distinctive 
yells of the various companies of the regiment, and tlie plain hurrahs of the 
rest of the crowd. It was nearly ten minutes before the speaking could pro- 
ceed. Judge Stone, who presided as master of ceremonies at the Mentor re- 
ception, served in the same capacity at Canton, introducing Otuo Sxidek, pres- 
ident of the club, for the introductory address. Mr. Snider said: 

"Major McKinley: Upon another occasion, a short time ago, the privilege 
of representing the First Voters' Club of Cleveland, was granted me, when our 
organization consisted of but little more than half its present membership. 
(Applause.) To-day with greatly augmented numbers, we have pome person- 
ally to manifest the deference we feel toward our candidate for the high office 
of President of the United States. (Applause.) Every man of us earnestly de- 
sires to cast his ballot according to the dictates of sound reason, with the high- 
est regard for our country's welfare, and having never before exercised the elect- 
ive franchise in the choice of a President of this Nation, we have arranged this 
meeting for the purpose of dispelling all illusions usually associated with one 
in high position, by greeting the man who stands at the head of the great Re- 
publican Party, and is the representative of all its wise principles. (Applause.) 
Now that we are assuming new political rights and are entering upon the re- 
sponsibilities of life in the pursuits of manhood, we need protection for our in- 
dustry, and a market for the fruits of our skill and labor, where an honest dollar 
will be paid in exchange. To effect this happy result we sought a leader true 
to these principles, one worthy of confidence for tlie qualities of his mind and 
heart. Your long career of uninterrupted service for your country justifies 
the trust and confidence inspired by you in the minds of youth. From early 
manhood, when you entered the army of the United States as a private soldier, 
winning an honorable position and promotion by Abraham Lincoln for gallant 
and meritorious conduct in battle, you have until the present day supported 
the honor of the Stars and Stripes, both on the field of battle and in the halls of 
Government. It is but fitting that the culmination of this life of devotion 
should be the highest honor within the power of the people to bestow, the 
choice of millions of free citizens, as their Executive." (Applause.) 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

" Mr. SNroER AND MY Fellow Citizens: I congratulate all of you upon 
having reached your majority ; I congratulate you upon having entered into 
full possession of sovereignty in the best Government of the world. (Applause. ) 
Born in the 'Seventies' you have enjoyed the most marvelous advantages of 
the Nineteenth Century. You have witnessed the greatest progress of^ science, 
mechanics, and material development of any period in our. history. You have 
enjoyed the advantages of the free and higher schools of learning. You have 
lived in a period of the greatest opportunity for moral and intellectual growth 
and enjoyed most favorable conditions for forming right opinions. You have 
escaped the extreme bitterness of party divisions and the passions of a frat- 
l^icidal war. You carry none of the scars of past party conflicts. You witness 
pnly as you come to ypur sovereignty, a reunited country under the Old Flag, 
;bleBsed in natural resources beyond any other country, and suffering only be- 

862 



cause of the unwise policies already inaugurated, and the dangerous policies 
yet threatened. You approach the exercise of your sovereignty, therefore, 
under the most advantageous circumstances, free from any past predilections 
and prepared in calm judgment to consider without bias the issues upon which 
parties are divided. You have in this campaign, as in no former campaign, tlie 
advantage of the most exhaustive discussion. Perhaps some of you, wl.o 
have already started out for yourselves, have had in the last three or four years 
some valuable personal experience, which is quite as good a school in politics as 
in anything else. You come to your majority at a time w^hen the people are 
engaged in a National contest that will settle some of the most important ques- 
tions which ever confronted us, and settle them for long years to come. You 
are given the ballot at a time when its use for good or evil to country was never 
greater. You assume this responsibility at a period fraught with as gi-ave prob- 
lems as were ever j)i"esented except in the time of war. It is of little moment, 
young gentlemen, that the Union was saved by the dread ordeal of war if it can 
not be continued in peace with honor. (Great applaus^ and cries of 'Good,' 
'Good.') No nation can hold its standing before mankind that will depreciate 
its own currency, any more than a nation can stand before the world that will 
not defend its flag and honor. (Applause.) No nation can hold its position 
that will violate plighted faith, or repudiate any part of its indebtedness, under 
any guise whatsoever. No nation can command respect at home, or abroad, if 
it does not at all times uphold the supremacy of law and inviolability of its own 
sacred obligations. It can not be denied that free coinage under the conditions 
proposed by our allied opponents will result in debasing our currency, deprive 
us of the use of gold, and all paper money based on gold, thus contracting our 
currency, and leaving us upon a silver basis alone. Its result would be to give us 
poorer money and less volume of circulation than we now have. Free silver 
would depreciate investments ; shake public confidence ; destroy values ; cheat 
labor; impair the savings of the poor, and produce a commercial revulsion, the 
like of which this country has never known. Our first voters surely will not 
want to use their ballots to bring about such a result. (Great cheering and 
cries of 'No, sir,' 'Never.') Surely every young voter who has his spurs yet to 
win ; his career to make ; his fortune to build, will hesitate before he will give 
his ballot to a party which seeks to create hostility between classes and sections ; 
betw^een the rich and the poor ; between the mechanic and the manufacturer ; 
betw'een the farmer and the banker. (Great applause.) He will cast his ballot to 
contmue the equality of citizenship, of privilege, of opportunity, of possibility, 
which has been the boast of our citizenship, and is the very cornerstone upon 
vvhich our free institutions rest. (Applause.) No young man will want to 
place weights upon his own shoulders, or raise barriers to his own progress, which 
hitherto have never impeded the progress of the industrious, honest, clean, am- 
bitious young man. (Tremendous applause.) Away with caste and classes. 
Such a doctrine is un-American and unworthy to be taught afi*ee people. (Loud 
and continuous cheering.) He who would inculcate that spirit among our peo- 
ple is not the friend but the enemy of the poor but honest young man, whose 
soul is fired with a' worthy ambition for himself. (Great applause.) How 
would Lincoln, Grant, Garfield and Logan have stood, if in their time they 
had accepted the doctrine, which some now teach, that because they were poor 
and of humble surroundings, they must go off by themselves and shut the door 
of opportunity to the best impulses of their souls, and the noblest aspirations 
of their minds? (Continuous applause.) The ballot of the young man, as well 
as that of the old man, the ballot of the first voter, as well as that of all voters, 

363 



should always express the voice of truth and conscience. It should represent 
the calm and unbiased judgment of the voter. It should embody the highest 
welfare of himself, his home, his community and his country, It should never 
be false to his convictions, or opposed to justice and honor, either in public or 
private concerns. It should express on its face his best hopes and highest as- 
pirations as an individual citizen, and always represent the greatest good to his 
fellow countrymen. May your votes, young gentlemen, be always given to 
preserve our unity, our honor, our flag, our currency and our country, and to 
save our blessed inheritance always from lawlessness, dishonesty and violence. 
May your votes always be given for a policy that shall give us the widest devel- 
opment in our unmatched resources ; the widest incentive to the invention, skill 
and genius of our citizens ; the largest reward to American labor, and the high- 
est welfare of the people, and promote the best ideals in American citizen- 
ship. I thank you for this call and bid you good afternoon." (Three rousing 
cheers were then given for Major McKinley.) 



EAST TENNESSEE VrSITORS. 

The highly polished stump sent to Major McKinley by Sheriff Gronek and 
other East Tennessee admirers, several weeks previous, was used for the first 
time, Friday morning, October 9th. This was in honor of a visit from the men 
whrfgave it, who came with a number of friends. The party arrived in a special 
Cleveland, Canton and Southern train and escorted by Canton Troop and the 
First Voters' Club, marched to the McKinley home. Besides Sheriff Groxer, 
Major J. E. Camp, Vice President of the National Republican League, and Ctiptain 
William Rule, editor of the Knoxville Daily Journal, came with the party. 
The latter served in the capacity of spokesman and said : 

"Major McKinley : I have the honor and pleasure to speak here for a dele- 
gation hailing from a State 'Away down south in Dixie,' beyond the Ohio river, 
and beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Tennessee is a State with which nature 
has dealt generously in the allotment of her treasures. The .State of Tennessee 
as you know, is divided physically into three grand divisions. We hail from 
East Tennessee, the land of magnificent mountains and crystal watei'S. There 
are thirty-three counties in this division of the State. These counties have not 
given a majority at any election for a Democratic President since 1832, when 
tliey voted for that grand old sound money Democrat, Andrew Jackson. It is 
our purpose to signalize the year 1896 by giving 35,000 majoi-ity, in East Ten- 
nessee, for McKinley and Hobaet, sound money and protection. If you think 
this prediction at all extravagant, we invite you to keep your eye on the returns 
from East Tennessee when the votes are counted." (Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Rule and My Fellow Citizens op East Tennessee: The honor of 
this call is mine — not yours. I appreciate that you have come a gi-eat distance, 
almost the greatest distance of any delegation which has visited me, to pay 
your respects not personally to me, but rather to testify your devotion to the 
principles of the Republican Party and your determination that those principles 
shall triumph at the approaching election. I recall with peculiar pleasure the 
visit which I made to the people of your section of Tennessee just about a year 
ago. I remember the splendid and cordial welcome that you gave me in the 
city of Knoxville, and I recall with patriotic pride the exercises in which I par- 

364, 



ticipated on the bloody field of Chickamauga, when Union and Confederate veter- 
ans together were dedicating that great field of conflict forever to union, liberty, 
peace and the old flag, (Tremendous applause.) Your presence here recalls 
pleasant and inspiring memories connected with the early history of your 
State. First, of John Sevier and the battle of King's Mountain in the Kevolu- 
tion, for the annals of that memorable era describe no more gallant or heroic 
contest than that signal victory which your ancestors so bravely won. Second, 
the 'Hero of New Orleans' and his great services for the young and struggling 
Republic in our second war with Great Britain. (Applause.) Third, the 
bravery, the suffering, and the heroism of the men of East Tennessee in de- 
fense of the imperishable Union in the War of the Eebellion. (Applause.) Per- 
haps some of these men, or some of their descendants, stand about me now. 
To them I do deference and honor, and bid them glad and hospitable welcome. 
I am sure they will rejoice with me in the glorious new dispensation ; in the new 
order of peace, reconciliation and harmony ; in the unification of those who 
fought on different sides in our great conflict. I am sure, too, they will rejoice 
with me in the obliteration of all past differences born of wax and passion, and 
to know that the contest this year is to be waged, not in heat, but in the name 
of fraternity, patriotism and honor. (Great cheering.) Tennessee can justly 
boast that she has been the birthplace and home of many of the eminent men of 
our country. She has given to the Presidency three of her distinguished citi- 
zens — Jackson, Polk and Johnson. She gave to the Lone Star Republic of 
Texas that sturdy old patriot, Sam Houston, one of its early Presidents. She 
has given to the Nation such splendid patriots, statesmen and upright public 
servants as Hugh L.White, John Bell, Felix Grundy, David Crockett, the' Hero 
of the Alamo,' 4.dmiral Farragut, one of the great commanders of the Union 
Navy, David GwiN of California, that distinguished journalist of Kentucky Hen- 
ry Watterson, and that able, incorruptible and honored Republican, Henry 
Clay Evans (applause) whose absence I very much regret, and only excuse be- 
cause I know that he is in some other part of the great field of political contest, 
busily engaged in the good cause for National prosperity and National honor. 
(Great applause.) The record of Tennessee this year should be in harmony with 
the principles emblazoned on her State seal, 'Agriculture, Manufactures and 
Commerce.' AVith prosperity in these fields of human activity, she can always 
advance; without it she must inevitably recede and decline. Men of 
Tennessee, do you stand by the principles enunciated by the immortal Jack- 
son? Do you favor a protective tariff and honest monoy? (Loud cries of 
'Yes,' and 'Yes, we do.') I am glad to be assured by your voices that you do, and 
that you have not forgotten the force and merit of his gi'eat example. Do 
you believe in his declaration for the enforcement and majesty of public law? 
(Cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') Are you willing to compromise the great principles 
he so steadfastly upheld in defence of the Constitution, the courts and the 
citizen? (Cries of 'No,' 'No.') In whatever other particulars we may differ 
from that sturdy old soldier, we believe in his declaration for protection, 
honest money and Constitutional authri: .j, which lie at the very foundation 
of our political fabric and without which we can not have peace, tranquility 
or prosperity (tremendous applause) and in which every good citizen must 
heartily concur. The administration of Jajies K. Polk was involved in the con- 
tentions of slavery, which ai*e happily long since at an end. One expression of 
his inaugural address has impressed me as being as forcible and applicable now 
as when he uttered it. He said 'Who shall assign limits to the achievements of 
free minds and free hands under the protection of this glorious Union? No 

365 



treason to mankind since the organization of society would be equal in atrocity 
to that of him who would lift his hand to destroy it. He, who would overthrow 
the noblest structure of human wisdom which protects himself and his fellow- 
man, would stop the progress of free government and involve his country either 
in anarchy or despotism.' (Applause.) There seem to be those, to-day, who 
would be willing to check the progress of free government. There are those who 
fieem willing to assail our Courts, the safeguards of our liberty, who seem un- 
willing that the United States should exercise its lawful sovereignty within its 
own jurisdiction. Can it be possible that they can control our elections and in- 
volve us in greater perils than any we have yet knovra? Men of Tennessee** to 
my mind there is no doubt. I appeal to you to steadfastly uphold the great safe- 
guards of our National Government. Stand by the party which seeks to promote 
National prosperity and National honor, and rebuke the party, or all parties, by 
your ballots, that would impair the one or destroy the other. (Great applause 
and cries of 'That's what we will do.') Tennessee is a State of immense resources 
in iron, coal, marble, clay, with forests of the best timber, and, while your manu- 
factories have already assumed the considerable proportions of a product of 
$37,000,000 every year, you have but grazed the surface of her immeasurable 
wealth. (Applause.) The policy of the Republican Party invites her greater 
development, greater activity, greater population and greater honor. The policy 
of the opposition favors the continuance and extension of free trade, whose 
blighting hand is felt upon every material interest of your State and of the 
country. It favors free silver which means the destruction of business ; the im- 
pairment of values ; the repudiation of debts ; the greatest panic in our history ; 
the \\i'eck of all our interests ; distress to all our people everywhere. We 
want in this country neither free trade nor free silver. (Applause and cries of 
'That's right.') We want neither debased labor nor debased currency. (Great 
applause.) The Republican policy is uplifting; the other is degrading. The one 
means work and wages, mills and factories, good money, good prices and good 
markets. The other means degradation, distress and dishonor. Men of Ten- 
nessee, on which side will the vote of your great State be cast this year? (Loud 
cries of 'For McKixley.') On these questions there should be no geogi-aphical, 
sectional or partisan divisions, but a united and unbroken country and a com- 
mon verdict. To us alike, whether of Ohio or Tennessee, Texas or Illinois, 
Maine or California, Massachusetts or South Carolina, have been conf.ded the 
interests of our common country, our whole country. It will be a reproach in 
the future to wilfully vote to violate the honor, the good faith and the fair 
name of our great Republic. We must, above all, respect ourselves and our Gov- 
ernment, and protect its honor at all hazards and at any cost. (Great cheering. ) 
We must unite in the defeat of any proposition of National dishonor. Men of 
East Tennessee, true and tried patriots:, who have not given, according to tlio 
words of your spokesman, a majority for the election of a Deniocrr.tic candidate 
forPresident for sixty-four years, when you voted for that glorious old hero, 
sound money and protection Democrat, Andrew Jacksox — men of East Ten- 
nessee, with such a record you must not falter in the presence of a gi'cat im- 
pending National peril. I am sure you can be relied upon to sustain those great 
ideas and to stand by that party which upholds law and order and is against 
public and private dishonesty. (Great applause.) I thank you, and it will give 
me great pleasure to meet you personally and greet each of you by u clasp ol tho 
hand." (Three cheers were given for the "Next President." ) 



866 



THE PATRIOTIC LEGION. 

Five hundredmembersof the Union Veterans' Patriotic Legion of OTeveland, 
Ohio, came to Canton on a special train over the Cleveland Terminal and Valley 
railvpay, Friday morning, October 9th. They came for thedoxibh^ purpose of con- 
gratulating Major MoKiNLEY and assuring him of their support and of assisting in 
escorting the ex-Confederate soldiers and th-eir sons. They were headed by the 
Great "Western Band and made a fine appearance as they paraded from the depot 
to the Public Square and also when they headed the united delegations to Major 
McKinley's home. Addresses in their own behalf were made by Capt. C. C. 
Dewstoe and Dr. H. J. Herrick. 



nONONGAHELA CITY AND COUNTY. 

A company numbering about three hundred people from Monongahela City 
and county, Pennsylvania, came in on a special Cleveland, Canton and Southern 
train shortly after noon Friday, October 9th. It was accompanied by tlie 
High School and Grand Aa-my Bands of Monongahela City. Among the visitors 
wei*e people of all avocations. Their cheers for Major McKinley when he 
appeared were very enthusiastic and the sentiments of his address were heartily 
applauded. They were introduced by T. H. Pollock, manager of the Mononga- 
hela Manufacturing Company, who paid a high tribute to the private and public 
career of the Eepublican standard bearer and assured him of their unceasing 
work till the ballots were all cast. 



Major McKinley's Response> 

" My Fellow Citizens op Monongahela City and Valley: I am glad to 
receive this visit and to welcome the representatives of labor and industry, 
whether from the mine or shop, as allies in the great political contest whose 
close is now only about three weeks away. This is a patriotic year ; a year when 
the spirit of genuine Americanism is dominant. This is a peculiarly patriotic 
day at Canton, for today we welcome fellow citizens not only from the North, 
but from the South. Akeady I have addressed a large audience of my fellow 
citizens from East Tennessee, who traveled hundreds of miles that they might 
give evidence of their devotion to country, her highest interests, her honor and 
the glorious old flag which we all love so well, (Great applause.) In a short 
time tliere will assemble on this lawn a large delegation of ex-Confederate 
soldiers, who thirty-five years ago were engaged in conflict against us, but who 
come now to testify as to their devotion to a re-united coxintry and that their 
aim and purpose is to help to save that country from dishonor, and our public 
obligations from repudiation. (Continuous cheering.) I am glad to welcome 
you, and while you are assembled about me, more than 100,000 men are march- 
ing through the streets of the city of Chicago, bearing banners for sound money, 
a protective tariff and reciprocity, and we have been enabled here to listen to 
their shouts and voices as they marched along. You are here to-day, moved by 
the same motive that brings aU delegations. Because you are interested in 
your country and because you have discovered from sad experience that if you 
do not look out for the interests of your country, nobody will. You know after 
the experience of the last three and a half years that our economic legislation 
does affect our prosperity ; and if that legislation is not friendly to American 
interests and enterprises, and American labor and development, that you do not 

367 



prosper here. You luave discovered that the more work is done abroad for the 
American people the less work is done at home, and that less work done at home 
the less chance you have for employment, consequently wages are lower and 
then there is distress and misery. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.' j That 
you know from sad experience. Your spokesman has been kind enough to refer 
to my record in the War, and in Congi-ess. I thank him very much for the kind 
things he says about me. I have but one aim, my fellow citizens, I never had 
but one aim, and that was the public good, (tremendous cheering and cries of 
'Good,' 'Good') the well-being and prosperity of my fellow countrymen. I believe 
in my country. I believe in its vast and marvelous possibilities, and I believe it 
is the duty of a free and selfgoverned people to put nothing in the pathway of 
progress. (Great applause.) I believe, moreover, that it is the duty of the 
Government of the United States to protect every industry and enterprise, 
whether the farm, the factory or the mine, from ruinous competition from any 
part of the world. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'Good,' 'Good.') I believe in 
American work for American workingmen. (Cries of 'You are right.') I 
believe in the American market for the American farmer. (Applause.) I 
believe that what will bring us the highest prosperity in every calling and walk 
of life, is a judicious tariff law to protect the products of this country against 
the competing products of all the world. (Great applause.) I believe, too, in 
a sound dollar. (Vociferous cheering.) I do not believe in a fifty-two cent 
dollar for the American people ; it is not good enough for us. Nothing is too 
good for the American people, (a voice 'Now you are shouting') and nobody was 
ever hurt by having money too good. (Applause.) Nobody was ever hurt by 
having money that was not only sound in our own country, but passed current 
in every country of the world. This is the kind of money we have now, and it 
is the kind of money we propose to have for the future. I thank you, my fellow 
citizens, for this call. I would be glad to talk to you longer but other delega- 
tions are crowding in. I am glad to know that this year, more than in any other 
of its glorious past, you mean to record an unparalleled victory for the 
Eepublican Party." (Tremendous cheering.) 

WARREN DAILY MIRROR EXCURSION. 

The Monongahela party was followed almost immediately by six hundred oth- 
er residents of the Keystone State known as the " Warren Daily Mirror Excur- 
sion" and representing Warren and Forest counties. With the party came the 
Tideoute Band and at the head of the parade marched the Warren Woman's 
McKinley Club. Conspicuously displayed were two banners, one for 1887 and 
one for 1888, awarded Forest county for the largest proportionate Republican 
pluralities in the State. The delegation was introduced by C. B. Bucklix, of 
Tideoute, who said they would be heard from in a more substantial manner on 
November third. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Bucklin and Fellow Citizens of Warren and Forest Counties, 
Pennsylvania : If I ever had any doubt about the extent of the population of 
the State of Pennsylvania, that doubt has been removed since the St. Louis 
Convention. (Laughter and applause.) I think I have had the honor of a call 
from nearly all Western Pennsylvania and as far east as Ilarrisburg, all coming 
upon the same mission, all determined upon the same end— that of contributing 
their part to the success of the grandest political party in the world (Great 

366 



applause.) We have had in this country, since the beginning of the Government, 
a trial of two i-evenue systems. One has been known as the tariff-for-revenue- 
only system, and. the other has been known as the protective system. We had 
no experience under the former for so many years that the people had totally 
forgotten tlie distress which was the result of the inauguration of that system. 
But we iiave had some experience with it during the last three years, (a voice 
'We do not want any more of it, though') and, as my friend says, we don't want 
any more of it. (Applause.) This is one of the things you have a chance to 
vote for or against on the third day of November (a voice 'We will be right 
there') whether you want more of it or whether you want less of it. 
We have had the greatest prosperity thi^ country ever enjoyed when we have 
been under the protective system. We iiave had the greatest depression, the 
worst panics and the most distress when we have been under the tariff-for- 
revenue system. (A voice, 'That's no lie,' and applause.) The tariff-for-revenue- 
only system has but one aim, and that is to raise revenue. The protective sys- 
tem has that aim, and in addition to that has the further aim of protecting 
American interests, American labor and American markets. (Great applause.) 
The protective system has proven, in our history, to be a better revenue raiser 
than the revenue tariff system ; for under it we have always been able to pro- 
vide sufficient revenues to conduct the Government, while under the tariff-for- 
revenue-only system we have not in the last three years and a half been able to 
provide adequate revenue to meet our public necessities ; so that as a revenue 
producer, the tariff system inaugurated by this Administration has signally and 
utterly failed. It has not only failed in raising revenue but it has brought 
injury to practically every American interest. It has favored every other 
nation but our own, and we are suffering as a consequence. Now that is one 
phase of the contention this year, upon which you will vote. The other is, 
whether we shall have a good, sound dollar, with which to do our business, or 
whether we will do our business with a depreciated, changing currency. The 
Jlepublican Party, as you know, believes in the protective system, and just as 
firmly and earnestly believes in an honest dollar with which to measure the 
"exchanges of the American people. (Great cheering and a voice, 'We wiU take 
a hundred cent dollar.') My friend here suggests we wiU take the hundred 
cent dollar ; that's good enough for us and its good enough for all mankind, and 
when they talk about this Nation having surrendered its independence because 
it won't adopt the Chinese system of finance, I send back the reply that there 
is no independence in thti United States to which dishonor attaches. (Great 
applause and a voice 'No Chinese currency for us.') I am glad to meet and 
greet you and would be glad to talk with you longer. I trust that the county 
of Warren will break her record this year, and the county of Forest, which some 
years ago received the banner for being the strongest Republican county in the 
State, will not permit any other county in Pennsylvania to take that banner 
from her." (Cries of '"We won't," and "Hurrah for McKinlet.") 

CLINTON COUNTY CONTINGENT. 

From Clinton County, Ohio, where honest Quakers are numerous, came, on 
Friday, October 9th, 700 enthusiastic Republicans to extend their gi-eetings to 
Major ilcKixLEY. With them were a number of people from Fayette, Pickaway 
and Warren counties. Their demonstration was patriotic in the extreme and 
their cheers added much to the great volume of enthusiasm. Marching to the 
"Republican shrine", Major MoKinley received them on his lawn and made a 

869 I 



liappy speech in response to the introdnctory nddress of Mnjor A. W. Doax, who 
assured him of tlie heurty support of the counties represented, and an increased 
Hepublican vote in each of them. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. DoAN AND My Fellow Citizens : I have heard these voices before. 
(Laughter and applause and cries of 'Right you are,' and 'You will hear them 
.again.') They sound very familiar to me, and as in the past they have been 
inspiring, so to-day, they give me strength and encouragement. I am glad to 
welcome the citizens of Clinton, Warren, Fayette and Pickaway counties of my 
own State. The argument here in Ohio was long ago made, and the ])eople have 
more than once passed upon the questions which are now engaging public 
attention. I remember in the first campaign I made as your candidate for 
Governor, one of the planks in the Democratic platform was a declaration for 
the free and unlimited coinage of silver. Probably that was the first time in 
the history of our State that any political party had made that declaration. We 
joined issue with the Democratic party upon that, submitted our contention to 
the people, and the voters of Ohio gave to the Republican ticket a majority 
larger than ever before, save and except one, since the close of the great civil 
war. Indeed, I feel that Ohio has spoken several times against this financial 
heresy for if she did not speak in suitable tones in 1891, she did in 1893, when 
she gave the Republican ticket a majority of over 80,000. If that would seem 
to be inadequate to let the world know how Ohio people stand on that question, 
they again spoke in 1894 by a plurality of over 130,000, and gave to our excellent 
Governor in 1895, General Bushnell, a plurality in excess of 90,000. (Great 
applause and a voice, 'We will make it more for you.') Why, my fellow citizens, 
aw'ay back of that, in 1875, when the inflation heresy vras spreading over this 
country and the proposition was to give to ua an irredeemable curi'ency, Ohio 
was the first of the great States of the Union to speak, and, under the magnifi- 
cent leadership of Rutherford B. Hayes, we achieved a substantial victory for 
honest money and public honor. (Great cheering.) I know that.Ohio people 
are solid on the question of protection. (Cries of 'Well, I should smile!' and 
'Right you are !') I have heard from them many times upon that proposition, 
and I know they will stand this year as in all the past, for a doctrine that gives 
work and wages, and markets and prosperity to the American people. (Great 
applause.) Not only are we for sound money and a protective tariff but we are 
for government by law. (Great cheering and cries of 'That's correct.') We are 
for the supremacy of law and we believe in an incorruptible judiciary 
(applause) which has been our bulwark in every time of trouble and every crisis 
in our history. We value public honor as we value the old Stars and Stripes, 
(tremendous cheering) and as we have preserved the one, even througli the 
dread (n-deal of battle, we will preserve the other b^ our ballots." (Three 
cheers were given for Major McKinley.) 

SONS OF THE SOUTHLAND. 

Friday, October 9th, was a great day for the old soldiers, both for those who, 
more tluai thirty years before, had donned the blue and for those who then wore 
the gray. That day the latter met the former with the warm, fraternal hand- 
grasp of citizenship. A brotherly welcome was extended by the Union soldiers 
of Canton to the ex-Confederate veterans of Harrisonburg and other points in 

370 



Virginia. It was a thrilling sight to .witness these two great forces marching^ 
shoulder to shoulder to receive a welcome greeting at the home of that illus- 
trious citizen, Major William McKixley, to hear whom these men of Virginia 
had traveleft all night and most of the day. They came also to give assurances 
of their support at the polls in November. It is no wonder that the soldier 
boys of Ohio and the veterans of Virginia cheered and shouted as they marched 
along the streets, and that they were greeted all along the line by the cheers 
and expressions of good will of thousands of Canton's citizens— men and women, 
as they wended their way to the Tabernacle, where a sumptuous dinner 
awaited them. It was a sight and an occasion which will remain indelibly im- 
pressed upon the memory of all who sat down to the bountifully spread tables 
which extended from one end of the Tabernacle to the other. The trains were 
late in arriving. The first sections were held at Akron until the others arrived 
in that city so as to get them together and reach Canton as rapidly as possible. 
There were more than 2,000 people in line when they marched to the Tabernacle. 
The visitors were met by Canton Troop, commanded by Major Augustus 
ViGNOs. They were followed by a company of the Canton Bicycle Escort in 
uniform. Then came the Grand Army Band, heading Canton Post, No. 25, and 
George D. Harter Post, No. 555, GrandArmy of the Republic, five hundred mem- 
bers of the Patriotic Legion, of Cleveland, and many other ex-soldiers of the 
city. Following these came the Virginians. The tables accommodated about 
five hundred at a sitting and the visitors were waited upon by members of 
the Woman's Eelief Corps and by a large number of other ladies who proffered 
their services. While they were gathered at the MoKinley residence, ex-Mayor 
Robert A. Cassidy, on behalf of the Canton soldiers, presented the visitors 
with a handsome red, white and blue satin banner. The banner is the produc- 
tion of Harvey R. Dittenhafer, and is a magnificent piece of work. Upon one side 
clasped hands are represented, indicating the unionof the soldiers of both sides> 
Above these are the words "United we Stand," with "McKinley Club" in large 
gold letters. On the reverse is a large American eagle in gold, resting 
upon a shield. This side bears the inscription: "Presented to the ex-Confed- 
erate Veterans of the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, by the ex-Union Veterans 
of Canton, Ohio, October 9th, 1896." The banner is five and a half feet long by 
thirty-four inches in width. The badges worn by the Canton soldiers were of 
gold colored ribbon and had printed upon them a portrait of Major McKixley, 
below which were the clasped hands and the words, "The Union Veterans of 
Canton, Ohio, to the Confederate Veterans of Virginia, October 9th, 1896." The 
Tabernacle was handsomely decorated with flags, banners, potted plants and 
flowers. The flags and bunting were gracefully festooned about the gallery rail 
and around the hall. Pictures of McKixley and Hobart adorned the wall and 
were beautifuDy trimmed with the National colors. To the right of the stage 
was a handsome figure of liberty made of sheet metal by the W. H. Mullixs 
Company, of Salem, Ohio. Every effort was made by the local members of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Woman's Eelief Corps, assisted by 
citizens, to make the welcome and entertainment of the Confederate Veterans 
a most successful one, and their aim was accomplished. The delay of the trains 
in reaching Canton made the festivities late, but they were the more heartily 
enjoyed. A photograph of the groups at the long tables was taken just before 
the meal began. Major Vignos of the Novelty Cutlery Company, presented 
each of the visitors with a souvenir knife, as a memento of the occasion. On 
one side of the knife was printed: "Presented by the Union Veterans of Can- 
ton, Ohio, to the ex-Confederates visiting Major MoKinley, at his home, 

371 



October 9th, 1896." On the other side was a picture of the American flag, 
Major McKixNley's portrait, and the inscription, ''No East, No West, No North, 
No South, the Union Forever." Each knife was enclosed in a cloth case. The 
first section' of the Shenandoah Valley train consisted of twelve coaches, with 
streamers, designating where the people were from and appropriate 
mottoes. The Dayton, Virginia, Band came on this section. The second section 
of eight cars, contained many soldiers, and the famous Stonewall Brigade Band, 
of Staunton, organized in 1855. All wore badges of blue and gray satin with 
the following motto printed thereon: "There should be No North, No South, 
No East, No West, but a Common Country. — Washington." On the Veterans' 
badges were the words, "Shenandoah Valley ex-Confederates, Canton, Ohio, 
October 9th, 1896." Each badge had pictures of McKinley and Hobart as a 
pendant. After the great crowd of Virginians which came on the first two 
sections had been fed, the line was re-formed at 4:30 o'clock, and headed by 
Canton Troop and the bands of music, marched to the Valley depot, where the 
last section, which was detained over two hours, arrived. It contained ten 
well filled coaches. They were quickly formed into line by their officers, 
who were: Chief Marshal, Colonel John A. Gibson; Adjutants, Colonel I. 
Brown Allen, General John E. Roller; Assistant Marshals, Captain J. B. 
Gardner, Hon. John Acker, M. H. AVickers, A, A. Arnold, H. L. Lindsay, 
John A. Noon and C. T. Haltzman. The Canton Flambeau Club led the pro- 
cession proper, Bugler Dan Schlott announcing the coming of the parade. 
Canton Troop followed under command of its officers. Then came carriages 
containing the speakers and members of the local Reception Committee. The 
latter, however, as the procession moved, stepped from the carriages to accom- 
modate several ex-Confederate veterans who were unable to walk, owing to age 
or wounds. The Grand Army Band followed, heading the local G. A. R. posts 
and unorganized Union veterans. The Canton soldiers were followed by the 
Patriotic Veterans' Legion of Cleveland, headed by the Great Western Band. 
The Virginia guests, four abreast, came next. Words fail to describe the scenes 
along the i*oute to Major McKinley's home. Thousands of people lined the 
way and cheered lustily. They were answered as heartily by the ex-Confeder- 
ates. American flags, and plenty of them, waved along the entire march. The 
scene was one continuous ovation. Added to the intensely thrilling events was 
the music of the bands which played "Dixie," "Should Old Acquaintance 
be Forgot," "The Bonnie Blue Flag." "Star Spangled Banner," and 
other familiar, patriotic or popular tunes It was a scene and an 
occasion that was inspii'ing and will never be forgotten by spectators or 
participants. Arriving at the home of Major McKinley the vast throng 
was massed in the yard, which was entirely inadequate to accommodate all. 
The streets for a square north and south of the stand erected at the front gate 
of that historic home, were crowded and jammed with people, who cheei'ed 
And shouted to their entire satisfaction. Intermingled with these shouts was 
heard the famous "yell" of the men of the South. The distinguished members 
of the delegation — A. P. Funkhouser, Hon. John E. Roller, Captain 
Warren S. Lurty, Major J. Dwight Palmer, Colonel J. H. Griffith, Rev. H. 
E. Richard, Colonel L. B. Allen, J. N. Fries, and Rev. Timothy Funk were 
ushei'ed into the reception room and received a welcome hand clasp. After a short 
talk the party made its way to the speakers' stand. The appearance of IMajor 
McKinley at his own door was the signal for a most vociferous uproar, and 
the desire to grasp him by the hand almost overwhelmed tlie line formed to 
clear a path to the stand. Major McKinley bowed cordially to all when he 

372 



reached the platform. At the conclusion of the exercises the entire party 
returned to the Tabernacle for supper. The streets of Canton, Friday night^^ 
especially about the Square, were crowded with people until a late hour. They 
were principally ex-Confederate veterans and others of their delegation who 
were scheduled to leave Canton at midnight. No general programme was 
arranged, the visitors being left free to enjoy themselves as they chose. The 
members of the local posts of the Grand Army of the Republic acted as enter- 
tainers and remained with the visitors until their departure. The Stonewall 
Brigade Band gave a concert in front of the Hurford House at about eight 
o'clock, which was enjoyed by thousands of people who highly complimented 
the music. 

ADDRESSES ON VETERANS' DAY. 

Hon. H. A. Cavnah, of Canton, acted as master of ceremonies and after 
referring briefly to the events of the day as remarkable even in Canton and 
memorable to the wearers of the blue and of the gray, he introduced Editor A. P. 
FuxKHousER of the State Republican, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, as spokesman 
on behalf of the delegation in general. Mr. Funkhouser addressed Major" 
McKiNLEY as follows : 

" Major McKinley: Since your nomination by the Republican Party as its 
candidate for President you have been visited by many large delegations, rep- 
resenting all classes of American citizenship, all callings of American voters. 
Your visitors have heretofore been chiefly from the Northern and Western sec- 
tions of our great, magnificent country. In your receptions of the many visitors 
who have come to give you assurainces of their earnest support and to lend you 
encouragement in the noble contest you are waging for the best interests of all 
the people of the whole country, you have not gazed into the faces of many men 
from that grand part of our common country, the glorious Southland. (Ap- 
plause.) Then, sir, I can not express the pride and pleasure I feel in being com- 
missioned to present to you this delegation composed of ex-Confederate soldiers 
and of the sons of ex-Confederate veterans. They come from the beautiful 
Shenandoah Valley, where in the campaigns of real war, more than thirty years 
ago, you were, yourself, a soldier. (Applause.) These battle-scarred and gray- 
haired Virginia soldiers have traveled many miles to testify their admiration 
for and devotion to you as the standard bearer of that. party, and the represen- 
tative of that policy, in the triumph of which they believe rests the prosperity 
and happiness of the whole American people. These old soldiers know that 
they will meet from you that M'arm welcome which a brave man ever gives to 
brave men, whether they be former friends or former foes. (Applause. ) These 
men of the Southland have long since forgotten the bitterness engendered by 
civil strife, and have turned their gaze and bent all their energies to the pro- 
gress and prosperity of the whole country. (Cheers.) They are representa- 
tives of many thousands of your fellow citizens in the South, who see in your 
coming victory a thorough, complete, and never agnin to be disturbed, harmony 
of all people, of all sections of our great united country. Their faith rests upon 
your past political history ; on your safe and conservative views on all questions 
of public policy ; on your just consideration of the rights and interests of the 
Southern people equally and in common with those of all the people of our whole 
country. (Applause.) At their homes, your visitors of today are earnest 
workers in the Republican ranks, firm maintainers of Republican principles and 
devout believers in the triumphant success of the Republican Party in the present 

373 



campaign." (Applause.) In conclusfon Mr. FtrNiCHOFgEH intrnducpd Geneml 
John E. Roller, who spoke particularly for the Confederate veterans. General 
Roller said : 

"Major McKixlet: I have the honor to present to you nearly otip thous- 
and of the ex-Confederate ^et^^rans of the far-famed Valley of the Shenandoah, 
and behind them a vast assemblage of their kinsmen, and those who have come 
with them as an escort of honor. It is the source of the deepest regret to us 
that the more distinguished of the leaders of the Confederate veterans, 
who have been forced by their convictions to ally themselves with the Re- 
publican Party, are absent from this auspicious occasion, and are compelled to 
withgo the pleasure of participating in it. In the language of the old song : 
'Some are dead and some are dying. 
Others still are wounded lying.' 

One of these was William Mahone, who led the Republican Party through 
many a trying contest and once a Senator of the United States. My comrades, 
is not his name and memory dear to you? (Great applause and cries of 'Yes,' 
'Yes.') RiDDLEBERGER, the game cock of the Shenandoah Valley, (criesof 'Yes, 
he was' ) once a Senator of the United States, also, and others I could recall. 
But time forbids me to dwell upon the names of those, who, having fought in the 
ranks of our party have thereby been required to make sacrifices as heroic as 
any made in the engagements in which they so conspicuously participated 
in the late "War. These are the men representing the old veterans of 
Virginia, who are willing to ally themselves with the Republican Party 
(applause) and are doing all they can for its success at the coming election. 
One of the objects that we hoped to attain was this : that by the speeches 
that we make in your presence and by your gracious response, to assure 
our friends in the South — some of our associates, who are hesitating evea 
now — that we have never been required to make any self abasement to the Re- 
publican Party, and that the men who doubt our right to represent that cause 
are in error We want to assure you that naught shall be said which shall kindle 
anew the fires of prejudice and hate that have now fallen into dead and lifeless 
ashes ; that not one word shall be said that shall give offence on either side. (Ap- 
plause.) God forbid that the day shall ever come again when the blood from one 
brother will cry out from the ground against another. We wish to convince our 
friends of the North that the Republican Party has an existence in the South, 
(great cheering) and that it commands the support of as loyal and as brave and 
as unswerving a body of men as ever followed a standard or supported, a cause 
anywhere on the face of God's green earth. Look into the faces of these old 
grizzly and gray-haired veterans^ and then remember, sir, that they are but the 
humble repregentatives of a party that casts more than 150,000 votes in the old 
State of Virginia, (applause) and that proposes, by the blessing of God, in the 
coming election, to see that the majority is put into the ballot boxes in favor of 
the electors who will support you. ;;, (Applause. ) We are but a small part of the 
large whole. We ask that you extend to that great part that we have left be- 
hind but a portion of the generous treatment that you have given us, and 
I promise you that the effect wiU be felt throughout the whole land, North and 
South ; and that the Republican Party , ridding itself of the idea that it is sectional, 
will start forward in a career, the effect of which will be felt throughout the 
whole land." Turning to the old Confederate veterans, General Roller saidt 
"Do we not love this country of ours? (A mighty shout went up of 'Yes', 'Yea 
we do.') Are we not devoted to its highest interests and its best efforts? 
Would we not obey its call no matter where it might say 'Go?* (Cries of 'Yes, Yes.') 

374 



"W'hether to free Cuba L-om the grasp of Spain, or Canada, if necessary, from the 
grasp of England. (Koldin" up the American flag.) This is the flag of our counti-y, 
and v.o are teaching our children and our children's children that it ic worthy 
of their he' rts' devotion and of any sacrifice they can make on this earth. Having 
said this much comrades, I have the honor— because it falls to my lot— to pre- 
sent to you the next President of the United States, William McKinley." (Tre- 
mendous cheering and continuous applause.) 

Wlien INIajor McKixley had concluded his response to these addresses— 
and no other response made in the campaign was given such an enthusiastic 
reception— ex-Mayor R. A. Cassidy presented the magnificent silk banner 
prepared for the visitors by courtesy of the Union veterans of Canton. It Vv'as 
already dark and so no formal address was made by Mr. Cassidy. He read the 
inscriptions and handed the banner to Captain W. S. Luety who spoke briefly. 

He said : 

"My Fellow Citizens: I came from Virginia, along with my comrades 
who fought with me on the battle-field, under the orders and direction of Lee 
and of Jackson, against this man (pointing to Major McKinley) whom we now 
propose to make President of the United States. (Vociferous yeUing and cries 
of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') I came to tell you that we Virginians mean what 
we say ; we mean what our coming says— that of this glorious grand Union of 
ours we are proud. We are sincere in our devotion. And if we showed courage 
upon our sunny lands then, do you not think that every one of us, the men of 
Jackson, of Lee and of Longsteeet, would not now join the men of Grant, of 
Hayes, of Sherman, of MoClellan, to defend our glorious country from one 
end to the other?" (Applause.) 

At the conclusion of the speeches as Major McKinley proceeded to the 
house there were many touchings scenes. A pleasing event was the presentation 
of a beautiful bouquet by Miss Sibert B. Noon, of Staunton, Virginia. The little 
girl said : 

"Governor McKinley: I am a little girl ten years old; I come from way 
down in Dixie to bring you flowers. I present these flowers as a token of the 
admiration we Virginians have for the next President of the United States." 

She was greeted with applause by the great ci-owd , and ushered into the 
parlor, where she repeated her little speech to a company of ladies and was 
showered with kisses and badges by Mrs. McKinley. 

Major ricKin!ey's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I appreciate highly the generous and gracious words 
which have been spoken in your behalf by your eloquent spokesmen. I welcome 
the representatives of a State of proud ancestral memories. (Great cheering.) 
Of the State of Washington, (applause) the President of the convention which 
framed the Constitution, and the first and foremost President of the United 
States. Of the State of Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, (great applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley' ) which lighted the torch 
of liberty that has girdled the globe. Of the State of 3Iadison, the expounder of the 
Federal Constitution. Of the State of Monroe, who promulgated the great doc- 
trine of international law that prevents European interference in this hemi- 
sphere. (Great applause. ) Of the State that was generous in its concessions of ter- 
ritory and that gave Ohio to the .Federal Union. (Loud cheering. ) Thrice wel- 
come, men of Virginia— men of the Shenandoah Valley! (Renewed applause.) 
Thrice welcome, the descendants of such noble sires to my heart and home ! 

375 



^Loud cheering.) Patriotism is not bound by State, or class, or sectional lines. 
We are a reunited country. (Cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes,' 'That's what we are,' and 
tremendous applause.') We have but one flag, the glorious old Stars and 
Stripes (tremendous cheering) which all of us love so well, and that we mean to 
transmit in honor and glory to our children, North and South. Sectionalism 
was surrendered at Appomattox, (great applause) and the years that have fol- 
lowed have removed any lingering resistance which remained. Indeed, if any- 
tl.lng was needed to utterly and effectually destroy it, it has been furnished in 
the events of the contest now upon us for the honor of the American name and 
for that permanent peace, which was the dying prayer of the great captain of our 
armies, Ulysses S. Grant. (Vociferous cheevs.) The spirit of a fervent 
Americanism is abroad in the land, and no more earnest, or sincere, is this sen- 
timent in the North than in the South. This year the words of your Veterans' 
Legion, borne on your breasts to-day, 'No North, no South, no East, no West, 
the Union forever,' rings forth like a bugle note calling patriots together, and 
is an expression of the purpose of the American people, both North tmd South, 
(tremendous applause and loud yells) proclaiming 'Liberty, Union and Honor' 
as the high aim of every survivor of that great war on either side, and of every 
patriot in the country. The inspiring and unconquerable sentiment of this 
campaign is : 'Country first, Country last, and Country with stainless honor, all 
the time.' (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and great cheering.) The voice of the mis- 
guided partisan is not heeded ; the voice of patriotism strikes a responsive 
chord this year.. The voice of prejudice and hate is lost in the grand chorus of 
peace and good will, National unity and National integrity. (Great applause.) 
No stronger evidence, no higher testimony, is required to prove that sectional lines 
are obliterated and that the war has longbeen over than the presence in Canton 
of this large assemblage of ex-Confederate soldiers, travelling from the 
Valley of the Shenandoah in Virginia, which marked the bloody pathway of 
the war, to testify their devotion ^to the unbroken and never to be broken 
Union (tremendous applause) and their purpose to uphold its credit and honor^ 
forever. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and great cheering.) Theirpresence betokens a 
new departure. It is an inspiring and uplifting scene ; it rise abov» the plane of 
mere partisanship. The soldiers who fought against you are also here to give 
you hearty and hospitable welcome, marching side by side with you under the 
same flag. (Long and continued applause.) No longer have the two forces 
arms in their hands, but they meet with love and respect for each other in their 
hearts. (Cries of 'Good' 'Good.') It is a spectacle which longing eyes have 
wished to see, North and South ; a consummation devoutly hoped and prayed 
for, and for which, sensible as I am of its import, I can not find words to give 
suitable expression. (Eenewed cheering. J Men who engaged in deadly conflict 
thirty-one years ago, now stand on a common platform of 'Fraternity and 
Unity,' vying with each other in joyous rivalry in their loyalty to the glorious 
old Stars and Stripes ; meeting not as enemies, but as friends fighting for the 
same cause, the holiest cause which ever engaged mankind, the glorious cause of 
' country and its spotless honor. ( Cheering. ) I think I may be pardoned if I say that 
I take great pride and gratification in this call of ex-Confederate soldiers. (Loud 
cheering. ) It has touched my heart profoundly. It is probably the first call of its 
kind that was ever made upon a Presidential candidate of the Republican Party, 
or possibly of any party. (Applause.) I regard it as another and most significant 
assurance that complete reconciliation has come and that the South and the North^ 
as in the earlier lifetime of the Republic, are again together in heart, as well 
AS in name. (Great cheering. ) It will quicken every patriotic pulse from one end 

376 



of the country to the other. It is a glorious' example of palriotic devotion- 
which might well be emulated by some people, both in the North and in the South, 
(few of them happily there are) who would profit by fanning the flames of pas- 
sion and prejudice and by arraying one portion of our country against the other. 
(Cries of 'That's right,' and great applause.) It is peculiarly a matter of grati- 
fication to me, also, that in my home city, and from the neighboring city of 
Cleveland, my old comrades of the war, with whom I fought on the other side 
from you in that great conflict, have given you such warm welcome, and will 
tender you hospitality while here, and give you their love and benediction to 
carry away with you when you go to your homes. (Continuous cheering.) I 
am honored to have witnessed this scene and day, and I bid you, soldiers of 
Gbant and soldiers of Lee, 

' At the shrine of this reunion, i 

Dedicate your lives anew.' 

Rejoice, all of you, and thank God that the 

'Cause of truth and human weal 
Is transferred from the sword's appeal 
To peace and Love.' 

(Vociferous cheers.) 

That 

•No longer from its brazen portals 
The blast of War's great organ shakes the 

skies; 
But beautiful as songs of the immortals, 
The holy melodies of love arise.' 

Let no discordant notes grate upon the melody of peace. Let it go forth, 
let it be everywhere proclaimed, that the men of the North and the men of the 
South together stand for the enthronement of justice and the supremacy of 
law. (Great cheering.) The voice that would reopen the conflicts of the past, 
and the bitterness of thirty years ago, that would array class against class, or 
section against section, is not a friend, but an enemy of our glorious Union, and 
stands in the pathway of its onward progress. (Great applause and cries of 
'That's right.') Men of the South, the only force now needed in this free Gov- 
ernment is that of conscience, justice, reason and intelligence. (Great ap- 
plause. This is the irresistible power upon which rests our strength, security, 
permanency, and glory. We have entered upon a new and blessed era ; we 
have crossed the dominion of force into the kingdom of peace and law and mu- 
tual good will. (Tremendous cheering.) Faith in each other, faith in a com- 
mon country, faith in the future and a common destiny has made us one — for- 
ever one. We have learned that 

•Peace and greatness best become us ; 
Calm power doth guide 

With a far more imperious stateliness 
Than all the swords of violence can do, 

And easier gains those ends she tends unto.' 

(Great applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') This is my message to grim sur- 
vivors of that mighty war, of both sides. This is the spirit that I would have 
carried into practical every-day administration and fill the hearts of tiia Amer- 
ican people. (Cheers.) I thank you for this cordial greeting. I thank your 
orators for their generous words of assurance in your behalf. Let us remember, 
now and in all the future, that we are Americans, and that what is good for 
Ohio is good for Virginia." (Continuous applause and loud yells with three 
0^9feT9 tot MoKiNLET and Hobabt.) 

877 



The Virginians then filed across the porch and were introduced and racb 
taken by the hand by Major McKixley. 

GREAT DEMONSTRATIONS IN CANTON. 

The vast number of trains which were run to Canton by the railroads, 
Saturday, October 10th, was something wonderful. Trains arrived every few 
minutes, unloading their human freight. Despite this the railways were clogged 
as early as noon, and freight traffic was temporarily suspended. Of all the vast 
crowds which visited Canton, this day's crowds and demonstrations were never 
before equalled. The streets were filled with people awaiting their turn to 
listen to Major McKtxley, and at times three or four delegations were massed 
and addressed at one and the same time. The unprecedented rush on the rail- 
roads caused considei-able delay and very few of the trains arrived on time. 
The special from Lansing, Michigan, came in over the Cleveland, Canton and 
Southern Railroad at about 8:30 o'clock. The cars were festooned with bunt- 
ing and banners. A large streamer on one of the cars read: "Michigan's 
Greeting to Ohio, 40,000 Majority for MoKinley." The delegation numbered 
about two hundred, all wearing gold colored badges, inscribed, "McKinley and 
Hobart, Sound Money, Protection and Prosperity." A delegation from 
Lebanon, Pennsylvania, came in about the same time and the two were merged 
into one parade and were addressed at once by Major MoKinley, after being 
Introduced by a spokesman from each State. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens of Michigan and Pennsylvania: Your early call is 
an example of promptness which I trust will be followed on the third of No- 
vember in every part of our country. I bid you warm welcome to my city and 
home. The best thing in this world next to liberty is labor and the best thing 
for labor is an opportunity to work. (Applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') 
This is the opportunity for which we are all striving this year, and which we 
hope, through a change of policy in the administration of the Government of 
the United States, to enjoy to a larger degree than we have done in the past 
three and a hali years. What we want more than anything else in order to 
bring this opportunity to labor is a restoration of confidence. (Applause.) 
"With confidence shaken money seeks a hiding place and goes out of the chan- 
nels of business and legitimate investment, and away from farming, manu- 
facturing and mining enterprises. I do not know of a better illustration of the 
value of confidence to the country than is found in our own experience during 
the last twenty years. You will remember that this country resumed specie 
payments onJanuary 1,1879. We had outstanding then, as we have now, $346, 000- 
000 of what is commonly known as greenback currency, every dollar of which 
from that date has been redeemable in gold upon presentation at the Treasury 
of the United States. So great was the confidence of the people in the ability 
of the country that from 1879 to 1893 but forty-six million dollars were presented 
for redemption and gold taken out — less than fifty millions in fourteen years 1 
(Applause.) Yet, in the last three and a half years, since confidence has been 
disturbed, more than two hundred millions of greenbacks have been presented 
to the Treasury of the United States for redemption and gold taken out. Now, 
if confidence had existed, if the holders of these gi-eenbacks had not been fear- 
ful — and they were only made so because the Treasury of the United States was 
»ot collecting enough money to pay its bills — that the revenues of the Treasui-y 

S7S 



were inadequate for public expenditures, there would have been no demand for 
such redemption. But, alarmed as they were, they sent their greenbacks in for 
redemption and took the gold out. The gold reserve, therefore, was encroach- 
ed upon, and from time to time, we have been compelled, to sustain it? to bor- 
row money to put gold into the Treasui'y of the United States. TheEepublican 
Party believes that it is the duty of the Government, first, to raise enough 
money to pay all its expenses. (Applause.) We don't want any deficiencies in 
the Public Treasury, and if we have no deficiency, we will have no debts, and if 
we have no debts, we will have no bonds. (Applause.) When we have no 
deficiencies everybody will have confidence in the solvency of the treasury of 
the United States. Second, my fellow citizens, we not only believe in raising 
enough money to run the Government, but we believe in having a tariff upon 
foreign competing products, high enough to protect American labor and Amer- 
ican manufactures. (Applause.) We believe it is the first duty of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States to protect and defend its own citizens. (Ap- 
plause.) It is poor policy on our part to give work to the labor of other nations 
while we have idle men in the United States. (Applause and cries of 'Good.') 
When we have accomplished that, we propose to continue the good money we 
have in this country. (Applause.) We do not want short dollars any more 
than we want light weights. (Applause.) We are in favor of a good, round, 
one-hundred-cent dollar, with which to pay the labor of this country and meas- 
ure the exchanges of the American people (applause) and we will have no otlier 
kind. I thank you, gentlemen, for this call. Delegations are arriving, and, 
therefore, I am quite sure you will not expect from me a more extended 
speech. I am glad to meet and greet each and every one of you, and, trust 
that on the third day of November you will write on your ballots what you '-re- 
lieve is best for you, your country, its credit, its confidence, and for our 
glorious old flag." (Applause with three cheers for McKinley.) 

DELEGATIONS FROM THREE STATES. 

At nine o'clock Saturday morning, October 10th, the first special came in on 
the Cleveland Terminal and Valley Eailway with one hundred and twenty pil- 
grims from Eock Island County, Illinois. They came unattended by bands or 
other music, but had handsome badges and carried a banner which declared: 
"Eock Island County 16 to 1 for McKinley." The delegation was escorted to 
the home of Major McKinley by Canton Troop and a drum corps. They were 
also accompanied by the Eeading, Pennsylvania, Hardware Sound Money Club 
and a delegation from Davenport, Iowa. Each had a spokesman, but Major 
McKinley replied to them collectively. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: It gives me very great pleasure to welcome the 
citizens of Eeading, Pennsylvania, Eock Island and Moline, Illinois, and Dav- 
enport, Iowa, at my home in the city of Canton. You come from three 
States of the mightiest Government on the earth. (Applause.) You come repre- 
senting divers occupations and varied employments, but you come with a 
single mission and a common purpose. (Applause.) That purpose is to mani- 
fest your devotion to the great principles of the Eepublican Party, and your 
determination to see that those principles shall triumph on the third day of 
November. (Applause.) You come because, as your spokesmen have so well 
said, you are interested in the welfare and prosperity of the country which you 
love, and that you believe will best be subserved by a Eepublican victory at the 

379 



ensuing election, now only a little more than three weeks away. (Applause.) You 
have come because you believe in a protective tariff. (Applause and cries of 
'That's right.') You believe in that great American policy established at the 
beginning of the Government of the United States, whicli had the approval of 
nearly all the early statesmen of the country and of the lii-st President of the 
United States, Geoege Washington. (Applause.) A policy that has been pur- 
sued for more than half the lifetime of the Republic. During all the period 
that it prevailed we enjoyed the highest prosperity in every enterprise and 
every undertaking of the American people. You have come because you are 
in favor of the supremacy of law, and because you mean to help maintain a Gov- 
ernment by law and under the law. (Applause and cries of 'Right,' and 'Good.') 
You are here because you believe in public and private honesty (applause) and 
because you do not propose that our public debt shall be repudiated in 
whole or in part. (Applause.) You are here to declare that every obligation 
of this Government is as sacred as its flag. (Applause. ) You are here because you 
want no depreciating or fluctuating currency with which to do business. You are 
here because you believe in an honest dollar for an honest government and for 
honest men. (Applause. ) You do not want a dollar that is less than a hundred 
cents, for you were taught in your childhood in these great States that an honest 
dollar had a hundred cents in it. (Applause and cries of 'That's right' and 'Good.') 
My fellow citizens, the Republican Party is an inspiration and an education. 
I wish every man in this country might read the first platform that the Repub- 
licans ever made as a National party in 1856, in the city of Philadelphia. I 
wish every young man might read it ; and that every old Republican might look 
up the record and recall its provisions. It reads more like inspired prophecy than 
the declaration of a political organization. (Applause. ) It declared for the unity 
of the States and the indissolubility of the American Union. It declared for 
free homes, for free lands, for free speech, and for a protective tariff. (Ap- 
plause.) It declared that the two oceans should be united by rail — the Atlantic 
and the Pacific, and every promise that this great platform made has been kept, 
(Applause.) How glorious is Republican triumph! There isn't a page of Re- 
publican record that has been written in the last thirty-three years that any 
lover of humanity, any lover of liberty, any patriot, would strike from the pages 
of American history, not one. (Applause.) You can trust the Republican 
Party (applause and cries of 'You can') for behind it is the great conservative 
force of the country. Behind it this year, as in the days of war, is the gi-eat 
patriotic heart of the country (applause) Democrats and Republicans alike. 
I thank you, my fellow citizens, for this call. This is not a party campaign, it is 
a patriotic campaign. It is not a campaign of men, it is a campaign for our 
country. (Applause.) I thank you a thousand times for the long journey you 
have made that you might testify your devotion to Republican principles. 
I bid you go back home and say to all the people that Ohio, this splendid old 
State of my birth, will give to these great doctrines of the Republican Party 
an unprecedented majority this year." (Applause and three cheers for MoEix- 

LET.) 

KENTUCKY IN EVIDENCE. 

Louisville, Kentucky, furnished the next train over the Fort Wayne road. 
The delegation was composed of two hundred enthusiastic Republicans, all 
zealous for the principles of the party and confident that the vote of their State 
would be cast for their party leader. The Grand Army Band and a marching 
club welcomed them to the political Mecca and escorted them through the 



streets. Their spokesman was Mayor Geoege D. Todd, of Louisville, who talked 
eloquently. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I appreciate this call from the citizens of a neigh- 
boring State. We are only divided by the Ohio river, but in sentiment, in pur- 
pose and in hope this year nothing can divide us. (Great applause and cries of / 
^ You are right.') With the great bridges between Cincinnati and Covington, || 
instead of two cities we now have one ; and while they are under different man- 
agements, they are both under the same flag— the glorious old Stars and Stripes. 
<Vociferous yells.) We axe the closest of neighbors and, therefore, ought to be 
the best of friends. I can not refrain from congratulating the men here assem- 
bled, Kepublicans and Democrats, on the signal victory they achieved last year 
in the election of Governor Beadlbt to the Chief Executive oflBce of the State. 
(Applause.) It was given to your State, as it has been given to few common- 
wealths, to be the first to lead in the fight for honest money and the gold stand- 
ard. (Great applause.) Your campaign, as I recall it, was waged, to a very 
great degree, upon the lines of the present National campaign. Great promi- 
nence was given to the question of whether the free and unlimited coinage of 
silver should receive the approval of the people of Kentucky, or whether the 
present monetary standard and financial system of the Government of the 
United States should be continued. Your distinguished Governor contributed, 
much to illuminate the subject and to help to a rightful settlement of that 
question. He was aided by leading Democrats of the State, both in direction 
and in the final battle of ballots, which ended so triumphantly for the cause 
for which he stood, and the cause for which all of us stand, as a National party 
ihis year. (Cheers.) To Kentuckians, therefore, the question would seem to 
be closed, for it can hardly be doubted that the verdict which they rendered in 
that campaign will be repeated this year with even greater and more significant 
force. (Loud cries of 'You bet it will,' and applause.) You are to be congrat- 
ulated that you have in the gi-eat office of Secretary of the Treasm-y, a distin- 
guished citizen of your State, the Hon. John G. Carlisle, whose devotion to 
sound money has been demonstrated by high courage, and whose stand for the 
credit and honor of the Government commands almost universal commenda- 
tion. (Applause.) It is a singular fact, gentlemen, that the Chicago Demo- 
cratic Convention made its chief assault, not against the Republican Party, but 
against its own Administration (great laughter and applause) and the high pub- 
lic officials who are executing its great offices. They make no assault 
upon the Eepublican doctrine of protection, which Henry Clay 
so long and so ably supported, and in none of their speeches do 
they suggest how they will raise the necessary revenue to run the Gov- 
ernment. They assail the Administration for issuing bonds to preserve 
the country's credit. They declare unalterably against issuing any more bonds 
but give no sign of how, with the deficient revenues now existing, they will pro- 
vide the necessary money to pay the expenses of the Government. As they will 
not borrow any money, it wiU be interesting to the electors of this country to 
know how they intend to get it, (laughter and applause) whether by increasing 
the subjects of internal taxation, by a direct tax upon the people, or an advance 
of duties upon foreign goods coming into the United States. It would 
seem that the people ought to be enlightened upon this subject. They say they 
will not seriously consider this question, much less discuss it, until, what they 
denominate the supreme issue, the free and independent coinage by the United 

381 J 



f: 



States of thesflveir of the world, shall be settled. They must appreciate, if 
they have given the subject any stndy, that the reduction of the dollar to tifiy- 
two cents or less, would diminish the value of the money received from duties 
on Imports an^ Internal taxes in the same ratio that they reduce the dollar. 
(Applause.) a In such an event more revenue will be required. How will they 
raise It? Surely no revenue can come from the mints, no matter how much 
silver we may coin, for its coinage must be free. (Laughter and applause ) 
They must certainly know that to coin silver on account of the Government 
will require the Government to buy silver — and where will they get the money 
to buy it? (Great laughter and applause. ) The old-fashioned way, taught us by 
the fathers, was to raise money by taxation, but they have abandoned that 
doctrine and propose to resort to the mints of the United States. (Great ap- 
plause.) But they can not put gold or silver into the mints of the United States 
for coinage for the Government without buying it, and where will they get the 
money to buy with ? (Laughter and cheering.) It is important to know how 
the money is to be raised. "We can get no relief from the mints to help pay the 
Government bills. There is no other way but to resort to taxation, and it seems 
to me that frankness would require of them that we should have some other 
information as to their purpose upon this subject. Recognizing the condition 
of the Treasury and the inadequacy of our revenue, the Eepublican Party 
makes no concealment of its purpose, and that purpose is that the additional 
revenue required for the uses of the Government shall be raised by a tariff on 
foreign goods. (Three cheers.) Protective tariffs not only furnish revenue for 
the Government, and have at every period of our history, but they help to give em- 
ployment to American labor. (Tremendous cheering.) If we should run all the 
mints of the United States all the time we could not furnish employment to 
the idle men. (Great applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and 'Hit 'em again.' ) 
Nor does the Eepublican Party make any concealment of the fact that it is op- 
posed, unalterably opposed, to any corruption of our financial system or any 
debasement of our financial standard. It is unalterably opposed to any attempt 
to discharge the obligations of the Government in any money less valuable than 
that which is the best money recognized by every commercial nation of the 
world. (Applause.) The Chicago Democratic platform and the leaders and 
orators of that Convention, assail the Administration of their own creotion for 
its enforcement of public law and the protection of the property of the United 
States. The Republican Party does not conceal its purpose to maintain, as in 
all the years of the past, public law and preserve public peace (great applause) 
and it will never consent to dishonor the American name or discred it its honor. 
(Great applause.) The Republican Party carries no concealed weapons. (Ap- 
plause and laughter.) Its record is an open book to be read by all men. It hns 
not an aim that does not embrace the public good and take into contemplation 
the honor and credit of the Government of the United States and the welfare of 
the American people. (Applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') It is forthe coun- 
try first, and lets everything wait until.that is established— a country of law, by 
law and under the law. (Great cheering.) .What will theverdictof Kentucky be, 
as between the Chicago Democratic platform and the St. Louis Republican 
platform? (A voice, 'Forty thousand for McKinlet' and loud applause and 
yells.) We take you at your word, men of Kentucky. (Laughterand applause.) 
We will be quite satisfied here in Ohio with 40,(XX) in Kentucky. (Laughter 
and a voice 'You will get it aU right.') I do not believe, my fellow citizens, 
that you will reverse that splendid verdict for sound money and National honor 
that you rendered a year ago. (Cries of 'Never/ 'Never,' and applause.) I 

382 ■ ' 



thank you for this honor. I would be glad to speak to you longer, but other 
delegations are waiting. It will give me very great pleasure to meet and greet 
each of you if it be your will." (Three cheers for MoKiNLEYwere given and 
then the enthusiastic Kentuckians sang "The Old Kentucky Home.") 



COLORED MEN FROM ALL STATES. 

Next after the Kentucky delegation was a company of fifty colored men repre- 
senting the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Their places of residence 
were so distributed as to represent substantially the whole country. The dele- 
gation was a committee sent by the Centennial Jubilee Conference in session 
in New York City, and included the Bishops, ofiBlcers and prominent members 
of the Conference. Their's is the oldest religious sect among the Afro-Ameri- 
cans, now numbering nearly five hundred thousand communicants. The 
pledge of Bishop George W. Clinton was that their votes would be unanimous- 
ly recorded for the Republican ticket. "A few days ago," said Bishop Clinton, 
"our distinguished colleague said he would confer upon you the Presidential 
succession. In the name of the A. M. E. Zion Church I pledge you our votes to 
•make your calling and election sure.* " 



Major McKinley's Response. 

[ "Dr. Clinton and My Fellow Citizens: That you should have Journeyed 
so great a distance as from the city of New York to give me your assurance of 
good will, and to express your devotion to the Eepublican cause and principles 
is an honor and a compliment which I shall always value. I can not refrain in 
this connection from congratulating you as members of Zion Church upon the 
splendid progress you have made in the first century of your existence. Every 
agency for the public good, every agency which looks to the betterment of 
humanity and civilization, to the education and the improvement of the morals 
of the people has my approval. (Applause.) I bid you godspeed in the noble 
work in which you are engaged, and I trust that future years will bring to your 
church even a greater measure of success than it has had in the past and bring 
to all of you love, contentment, peace and prosperity. (Applause.) Your race 
has made wonderful progress since it was made free. Progress in all that goes 
to make men better, all that goes to make better citizens, better husbands, 
better fathers, better men. You have made advancement in literature, in 
science, in the arts, in education, and you have not only demonstrated your 
ability to improve in these directions, but your race has shown splendid cour- 
age in the great crisis of American history. (Applause.) In one of the great 
battles near Baton Rouge the first Black Brigade was engaged. The Colonel, 
a white man, called the Color-bearer to his side and in the presence of the regi- 
ment, handed to him our glorious banner of the free (applause) and said to him: 
'Color-bearer, take this flag, fight for it, yes, die for it, but never surrender it 
into the hands of the enemy.' And that Color-bearer, whose face was as black 
as my hat, said to him, 'Colonel, I wiU bring this flag back to you in honor or I 
will report to God the reason why.' (Applause.) I thank you for this call most 
heartily and since/ely, and I bid you bear back to your venerable Bishop, my 
J)ersonal good wishes and my desire for his long life and continued good health." 
(Applause.) 

883 



KNIGHTS OF THE GRIP. 

One of the finest delegations to arrive on October 10th, was that of the In- 
dianapolis commercial men. They came in two sections over the Cleveland, 
Canton and Southern road shortly after 10 o'clock. A banner announced that 
the "Indianapolis Commercial Traveler's Republican Club" was organized in 
1880. With the delegation was the First Voters' McKinley Drum Corps, whose 
nil sic was excellent. The local Commercial Travelers' Reception Committee, 
Ciinton Troop and the Grand Army Band received the delegation, which numbered 
a 'out 400. The members of the First and Second Regiments of "Wheelmen 
were received by local wheelmen under Captain Bolton. They brought with 
I'lem a fine bicycle manufactured in Indianapolis, which was presented to Major 
JFcKiNLEY later in the day. The second train was filled with residents of the 
ciies of Anderson, Richmond, Muncie and Rushville and numbered two hundred. 
The Rushville Band of eighteen pieces, accompanied this delegation. The 
ladies of these two parties were conveyed to their hotels in carriages which had 
previously been provided by the committee. The Bald Headed Glee Club 
oi the Commercial Travelers furnished considerable amusement for the crowd 
which gathered about the delegation while they awaited for orders to march. 

A little after nine o'clock the special train bearing the commercial travelers ol 
Rochester, New York, steamed into the Cleveland, Canton and Southern depot. 
The local commercial men were in waiting and immediately took charge of 
their brethren. With the Rochester delegation was Link's Military Band of 
eij^hteen pieces. This organization was composed of drummers, fifers and bu- 
glers, and their music was first-class. 

Mansfield,Ohio,diditself great credit with its contribution to the throng of 
visitors. The special train arrived shortly before eleven o'clock. The Citizens' 
Band of Mansfield and an excellent drum corps enlivened the trip with martial 
music. The three delegations were massed and taken to the McKinley 
residence in one parade. R. L. Bomberger spoke for Mansfield, J. L. Griffith 
for Indianapolis and J. W. Taylor for Rochester. Their addresses emphasized 
the vmanimity of the support given the Republican ticket by the commercial 
tr:nelers. In addition to the address of Major McKinley they enjoyed a short 
talk from Congressman Boutelle, of Maine. 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"]My Fellow Citizens of Mansfield, Ohio, Rochester, New York, and Ik- 
DiAXAPoLiti AND OTHER Cities OP Indiana: It gives me very great pleasure to 
welcome the commercial travelers of these cities. I do not know where 
there could be found anywhere a more representative body of American 
citizens than among the commercial travelers of the United States. Their bus- 
iness, possibly better than any other, registers the depression or prosperity of 
tlie country. Nobody knows sooner than the commercial traveler whether 
times are good or bad. (Applause and cries of 'You are right.') No class of 
men so registers the waves of business as the men who now stand before me. 
You are interested in your occupations, in having prosperity extend from 
one end of the country to the other. You are interested in having all of our 
workshops running ; all our mines in operation; all our wheels in motion; all 
our workingmen constantly and profitably employed. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Goodj^ 
and 'That's right.') You are, therefore, this year possibly more than ever before, 
interested in the triumph of the political principles which envelope the well- 

884 



being and the highest prosperity of the American people. You want to stop un- 
sold goods and unpaid bills. (Great laughter and applause.) You know better 
than anybody else that you can not sell goods to your customers unless your 
customers can sell goods to the people. (Cries of 'That's right,' and great 
applause.) You know the people can not buy goods unless they have something 
to do with which to earn money that they may buy them. (Cries of 'That's right,' 
and great cheering. ) That's what is the matter with the country to-day. (Re- 
newed cheering.) That's the diagnosis of our condition at this hour. Business 
has been stopped, the wheels of industry are not running, idle men are on the 
streets. (A voice, 'Thousands of them.') Many of the manufacturing establish- 
ments are closed and you are not doing as well as you were in 1892. (Cries of 
'That's right,' and ' No, sir, we are not.') The best thing I can wish for each 
and every one of you is a return to the splendid prosperity of four years ago. 
<Tremendous cheering and a voice, 'Give us a McKinley bill.') The money of the 
country happily is all right (applause) the Republican Party made it all right 
(renewed cheering) and Grover Cleveland's administration has kept it good. 
(Cries of 'That's true.') We propose, my fellow citizens, to continue that 
good, sound, unquestioned, undepreciating money, with which to do the bus- 
iness of this great country. (Continuous cheering.) What a Nation we are! 
Why, in 1860, when Abraham Lincoln, of blessed memory, the immortal hero 
of emancipation and of the war— when lie took control of this Government, the 
entire wealth was sixteen billion dollars. When Bknjamin Harrison went out 
it was sixty-three billions of dollars ; and more than two-thirds of our great war 
debt had been wiped out. Since that time we have been doing little else but 
making debts for the Government and debts for the people. (Laughter and ap- 
plause') I am greatly honored by this call. Too many delegations are visiting 
.me to-day to permit my longer detaining you. (Cries of 'Go on,' 'Go on.') 
I appreciate this visit. It is inspiring to the cause which I represent and will 
encourage Republican spirit everywhere. I know the value of the commercial 
traveler. When he is against you, look ouc. (Great laughter and applause.) 
There is no such recruiting officer in the United States for a political party as 
one of you commercial travelers. (Laughter and applause.) You go every- 
where and you are good talkers, as you have demonstrated by the choice of your 
spokesmen here to-day. (Laughter and great cheering.) I thank you and bid 
you all good morning. We have present with us General Boutelle, of Maine, 
and while the delegation is marching up the hill (another delegation was then 
approaching) I am sure you will be ghid to hear a voice from the State of Maine, 
that just gave us nearly 50,(X)0 majority." (Applause and cheers.) 

PENN5YLVANIAN5 GALORE. 

The next body of men presenting their regards was one of over three hundred 
Pennsylvania miners from Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley. They, through 
their spokesman, Prof. W, P. Gregory, pledged their support to protection and 
honest money. 

Jlajor McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens of Pennsylvania : You have all discovered in your 
own lives that if you get anything valuable you have to work for it. (Cries of 
'That's right.') You have discovered in your own experience that there is no 
way to earn' a living or accumulate property except by labor and toil, energy 

385 



and industry and by frugal saving ; and knowing that all that you are interested 
in at this moment is how you can best use what you have — your labor, your 
farms, your products. In a word, all you want is an opportunity to work (ap- 
plause and cries of 'Right,' 'Eight' ) and when that opportunity is furnished you 
will faithfully perform the labor. (Cries of 'That's right.') There are not 
enough mints in the United States, or in the world, to give employment to tlie 
miners of Pennsylvania. (Great laughter and applause.) Therefore, my fellow 
citizens, you must certainly not be looking to the mints for the money which 
you need. You must look to the mines, the mills, and the factories. (Applause 
and cries of 'That's right.') You do not mine coal unless somebody wants to 
use that coal, and the more users of coal there are, the more miners there will 
be and the better will be their employment and their wages. (Great applause 
and cries of 'Right.') Now that is the whole philosophy of this business. (Great 
applause.) AYhen you have an opportunity to work, you want to be paid in dol- 
lars that are as good as any dollars in the world. (Great cheering.) "When you 
have given your good hard blows in the mines or factory, a good honest day's 
work, you want to be paid in good, honest dollars that will not depreciate over 
night. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') So what 
the country wants is work and the continuance of the good money that we have, 
and the prevalance of law and order'. (Great applause and cries of 'That's the 
stuff.') AVe want peace and tranquility in this country. (Cries of 'That's 
right.') We want to preserve the honor of the Government of the United 
States, and to denounce repudiation in every form. (Cries of 'Right you are.') 
I am glad to meet my fellow citizens of the State of Pennsylvania. We have in 
this county miners by the hundreds. I know something about them. I know 
that the only aim they have is an honest one, to stand by honest things ; and I 
know how the farmers of Stai'k County are benefitted when the mines of the 
county are running. (Applause.) I thank you over and over again for this call. 
I must now turn to the other side of the stand and address another delegation, 
the members of which have the same purpose in their hearts that you have — 
victory for the principles of protection, honest money and good government. 
(Great applause.) I thank you and bid you good afternoon." (Applause.) 

MARYLAND GRAND ARMY CLUB. 

The Grand Ai-my Club of Maryland, arrived Saturday, October 10th, on a 
special over the Cleveland Terminal and Valley Railway. It was one of the 
most representative bodies of men that visited Canton. The train was a fine 
one fitted up with palace sleepers and the club, three hundred strong, came in 
good style bringing the Wilson Post Band of Baltimore. Elegant silk flags, fine 
banners and elaborate badges gave the visitors a striking appearance. Canton 
Troop, the First Ward Drum Corps and Dueber-Hampden Escort Club conduct- 
ed the visitors immediately to the home of Major McKixley. The visitors were 
introduced by General Theodore F. Lang. He said, among other things: "AVe 
can not too strongly condemn the persistent efforts of your opponent to create 
class feeling and sectional animosity. We know but one class — a noble, intelli- 
gent and patriotic class — and but one section, an indissoluble Union of inde- 
structible States. The common people (the common people referred to by our 
martyred President) are not fooled by the cheap eloquence of an impulsivo 
enthusiast. They hearken rather to the wisdom of conservative men — and I 
tell you, sir, that the common people of Alaryland have already chosen you for 
their leader and exalted you as their Chief Magistrate." (Great applause.) 

386 



riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : The scenes which we witness in Canton to-day are 
©ncoui-aging and inspiring. There are delegations here from New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Maryland. (Great applause and 
cries of 'Iowa.') Yes, Iowa, and Kentucky. Yesterday we had delegations 
from Virginia and from Tennessee. All are welcome to my home city, for 
all of them are moved by a common purpose, and that is to help save the coun- 
try from repudiation and dishonor. (Great cheering.) This visit of my fellow 
citizens of Maryland indicates their concern for the welfare of the country an6 
their desire for its prosperity. The sooner that hope is realized the more 
gratifying it will be to you. (Cries of 'Right' and applause.) It is an unmis- 
takable expression of your belief that the change most to be desired can only 
be secured through Republican triumph, and that you are zealous and anxious 
to do your full share in bringing about this result. (Cries of 'That's what we are.') 
This campaign has many peculiar phases. It involves the most vital interests 
to country. It is also unique in American politics. One of the old and honored 
political parties of our country is very much divided. (Cries of 'There is only 
one party and that is the Republican Party,' followed by great cheering.) A 
part of it has united with two other parties, but in some of the States the alli- 
ance has been rejected and the fusion repudiated, so that the coalition is not 
altogether and everywhere harmonious. The old leaders of the Democratic 
party, those who carried its burdens and fought its battles in the past, framed 
in the city of Indianapolis, a few weeks ago, an indictment against their former 
party associates, who met at Chicago, which in severity has been unequaled in 
chis country. It pronounced the declarations of the Chicago Convention, which 
'vas Democratic in name, as an attack upon individual freedom, the right of pri- 
vate contract,the independence of the Judiciary and, the authority of the President 
to enforce the laws of the United States. They charged the Chicago Convention 
with a reckless attempt to increase the price of silver by legislation, to the 
debasement of our monetary system, and the threatened unlimited issue of paper 
money by the Government. They proclaim, in view of these and other grave 
departures from Democratic principles, that they can not support the candidate 
of that convention, nor be bound by its acts. (Applause and cries of 'That's 
the stuff.') They declare that the Democratic Party has survived many defeats, 
but could never survive a victory won in behalf of the policy jiroclaimed in its 
name at Chicago. (Applause.) On the money question they affirm that the 
experience of mankind has shown that, by reason of tlieir natural qualities, 'gold 
is the necessary money of the large affairs of commerce and business, while 
silver is conveniently adapted to minor transactions ; and the most beneficial 
use of both can be insured only by the adoption of the former as the standard 
of measure and the maintenance of silver at a parity with gold only by limited 
coinage under suitable safeguards of law. (Great applause.) Thus the largest 
possible enjoyment of both metals is gained, with a vi^lue universally accepted 
throughout the world, which constitutes the only practical bimetallic currency, 
assuring the most stable standard, and especially the best and safest money 
for all who earn their livelihood by labor or the products of husbandry. They 
can not suffer when paid in the best money known to man, but are the peculiar 
and most defenseless victims of a debased and fluctuating currency, which offer? 
continual profits to the money changer at their cost.' What I have read, my 
fellow citizens, is not the statement of Republicans, but of a Democratic con- 
vention, the most I'epresentative which probably ever assembled in the coun- 
try. (Applause.) Senators and Representatives in public life to-day, leaders of 

?S7 



the Democratic Party in their respective States, thus denounce the convenli^fn 
held in the city of Chicago. (Applause.) They speak words of truth and sober- 
ness. You can not debase the currency of the United States without degrading 
public honor. (Cries of 'That's right.') They speak the voice of patriotism. 
They repudiate their own party convention and characterize its resolutions as 
unsound, injudicious, unpatriotic and revolutionary. They are to be commend- 
ed by every lover of his country everywhere, for their courageous stand and 
for their bold denunciation of doctrines, which, although adopted by a conven- 
tion, representing a large body of Democrats, menace the peace and tranquility, 
the credit and the currency of the country. (Great applause.) It falls to the 
Republican Party this year, as in many other years of the past, to carry the 
standard of National honor (great applause and cries of *We will do that 
Major') and it never will be lowered in their hands. (Great applause and cries 
-of 'You bet it won't.') They meet the crisis with their old time courage, and, 
if given power, the whole world will know that they will never permit 
the currency of the country to be debased, or its financial honor stained. (Great 
applause.) Our adversaries talk fluently about the money of the fathers. I 
want to say for the fathers that their money was always honest. (Great ap- 
plause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') They insist that gold and silver alike con- 
stitute the money of the Constitution and the currency established by the early 
statesmen i3f the country. They would have us believe what history does not 
support — that gold and silver enjoyed equal privileges in the mints of the 
United States during all our history down to 1873. They assert that the 
stopping of the free coinage of silver in 1873 was the 'Crime of the century,' and 
is the cause of the present deplorable business conditions. They must know 
that prior to 1873 we had less than nine millions of silver dollars in circulation. 
We have coined since that time nearly five hundred millions of silver dollars, 
and they constitute a part of the currency of the country. (Applause.) Thej 
do not tell us that when the coinage of both gold and silver was fi-ee in the 
United States, that the per capita circulation in this country was less than it 
has been since the so-called crime of 1873. Why, under the free coinage of both 
gold and silver in the days of the fathers, we had in 1800, a per capita of $1.99. 
In 1833 it was $8.60. In 1852 it was $14.63. In 1872, before the resumption of 
specie payments and when we were doing business with an unlimited paper cur- 
rency, it was $18.19. In 1894, twenty-one years after the suspension of free coinage 
of silver, we had a per capita of $24.88 (gi'eat applause) and every dollar was as 
good as gold in every part of the world. (Great cheering.) We have a greater 
per capita in the United States than Great Britain, and a greater per capita than 
Germany."' The per capita of the whole world is about $5.15. The per capita of 
the gold standard countries is $18.00, while the per capita of the silver standard 
countries — of which they want to make us one (cries of 'No, never,') is about 
$4.30. Even the gold standard countries have more silver per capita than they 
have in silver countries. The gold standard countries, having a population of 
less than one-third of the world's population, have nearly two-thirds of the 
circulation of the world's currency. The United States has about five-and- 
a-half per cent of the total population of the principal countries of 
world, yet it has 32.21 per cent, of the banking resources and nearly 
sixteen per cent of the total money supply of the world. (Applause.) France 
has a higher per capita than the United States, but the banking de- 
posits in the United States are $77.76 per inhabitant, or $43.00 greater 
for each inhabitant than the banking deposits of France. (Aj)plause.) It 
must never be forgotten that the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 

388 



Bixteen to one, would not inrvp^se, but wonld dporeasp, our per capita r^ircu- 
lation. (Applause and cries of 'x hat's right.') It would add nothing to it, but 
would rob us of the good money we now have, and put us where the silver 
countries of the world are to-day, upon a silver basis alone. (Cries of 'We 
don't want free silver.') There is nothing in our present currency status, there- 
fore, to disturb us, except to defeat the party which proposes to debase it. 
(Cries of 'Our currency is all right.') It is the proposition to debase our currency 
standard that has created consternation in every business center of the country, 
has made times harder, has driven money from active i.idustry and put it be- 
hind barred doors, where it will be kept until confidence is again restored, 
(Cries of 'Eight,' 'Eight.') The people will not consent to a decrease of their 
circulating medium, nor a debasement of that medium of exchange. (Cries of 
'No, we won't.') If by your votes this menace to the money and credit of the 
country be dispelled, and by the same votes you restore the American protective 
policy, that will stop deficiencies in the Treasury and will protect American 
industry, and courage and confidence will gradually come back again, (Great 
cheering and cries of 'We want protection.') Open the mills and mines of the 
country by a judicious protective tariff and you will stop idleness and distress 
in the ranks of labor (cries of 'That right. Major') and you can not stop it in 
any other way, nor until then. (Cries of 'Eight,' 'Eight,' and 'Good,' 'Good.') 
What will be the voice of Maryland on the third day of November? (Cries of 
'McKiNLEY, McKiNLEY.'; What will be the voice of that great city of Balti- 
more ? (Eenewed cries of 'McKinley.') How will that old conservative city 
speak for National honor and against repudiation? (Cries of 'By voting for 
McKinley and protection.') I thank my old comrades of the war for their pres- 
ence at my home. (Applause.) I thank my fellow citizens of every voca- 
tion for having paid me this visit, and I beg to thank them in the name of the 
Eepublican Party for their assurances of loyal support to the pri-nciples of public 
honor, public honesty, a protective tariff, sound money, reciprocity, which will 
bring to us, I trust and firmly believe, good times (great cheering and cries of 
'We believe it') from which we wildly ran away in 1892. I thank you all and 
bid you good afternoon." (Three cheers were then given for McKinley.) 

WORKINQMEN OF CLEVELAND. 

The two succeeding addresses were delivered to four hundred or five hundred 
employes and friends of the Otis Steel Works of Cleveland, Ohio, introduced by 
Otto Grobein, and about three hundred employes of the City Forge and Iron 
Company, also of Cleveland, introduced by J, A, Leighton. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens, Friends and Neighbors : I bid you welcome to my 
home. I am honored by this visit and encouraged by it, because I know, as 
your spokesman has said, that you bring me assurances of loyalty to the great 
principles of the Eepublican Party, and of your intention to make those princi- 
ples victorious on the third day of November. (Great applause.) This audience 
fairly represents the conditions with which the business of this country is done. 
The men on the other side of me mine coal. The men on this side use coal in 
their mills, and because you so use it, they mine it. If you created no demand 
for it there would be no demand for the miner, (Cries of 'That's right.') I use 
this illustration, my fellow citizens, to show you how dependent we are upon 
each other, (Cries of 'Eight' 'Eight,') Howevery thread of business is interwoven 
with every other thread of business, and that when you snap one thread you injure 

389 



the whole great fabric. (Great applause.) When the employer does not find it 
profitable to manufacture he ceases to do so, and when he does not manufacture 
you do not have employment. (Applause and cries of 'Eight you are.') When 
he finds it profitable to manufacture you have steady employment at fair 
wages. Now, what we want you to do, in this country, is to favor whatever 
policy will encourage American industry and promote American manufactures. 
That which will build more factories and give more employment to workingmen, 
should be the true, genuine and universally accepted American policy. (Great 
applause and cries of 'Hurrah for Protection.') I am one of those who believe 
that we should look after our ovni people (great applause and cries of 'That's 
the stuff') before we look after the people of other lands, who owe no allegiance 
to the Government of the United States. (Great applause and cries of 'Right,' 
'Eight.') I believe the right policy is the one which protects the American 
workshop by putting a tariff upon the products of the foreign workshop. (Cries 
of 'That's right' and 'Hurrah for McKinley.') My fellow citizens, I do not 
believe that we ought to have a tariff policy that will let the products of cheai)er 
lands and of under-paid labor, come into this country and destroy our manufac- 
tories and impoverish and degrade our labor. (Great applause.) Now, the 
protective policy is my policy. (Cries of 'Our's, too, Major.') It is the doctrine 
I have always believed in and I make no apology to anybody anywhere for hold- 
ing that view. (Applause and cries of 'You don't have to'.) And if on the thii-d 
day of November the American people in their sovereign capacity shall decree 
that a protective policy shall be restored, and sound money continued, I hope 
and fervently pray that we will enter upon an era of prosperity that will give 
happiness and comfort to every American home. (Tremendous cheering and 
cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') I thank you for this call and bid you good 
afternoon." (Great cheering.) 

To the spokesman of the Cleveland Forge Company's employes Major 
McKinley responded as follows: 

" Gentlemen of the Cleveland Forge Company : I welcome you to Can ion 
and to my home. I am glad to see from your banners and learn from the words 
of your spokesman that you stand for the great principles of the Eepublican 
Party, and the American Union. (Great applause.) A union that gives to 
every citizen of every race and nationality, equal chance and opportunity in the 
battle of life ; a union that knows neither caste nor classes, creeds or nation- 
ality, but gives equal protection to all. (Great applause.) I am glad to see 
from your banners that you are in favor of protection to American industries. 
(Great applause and cries of 'You bet we are.') So am I. (Great cheering and 
cries of 'We know that. Major.') I believe it is the duty of the American peojile 
to vote for that policy which will protect American industry, defend American 
labor and preserve the old scale of American wages. (Great cheering. ) I thank 
you heartily for this call. I am always glad to meet the workingmen (great 
applause) and there is nothing in this campaign that gives me more encourage- 
ment than the thought that I have behind me the men who toil. (Great cheer- 
ing and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') I thank you and bid you good after- 
noon." (Eenewed cheering.) 

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. 

During the week ending October 10th, the Board of ^Missions of tlio Evangel- 
ical Association, a religious denomination of 150,(XX) communicants, wa^ in 
session in Cleveland. One of the resolutions unanimously adopted endorsed 
Major McKinley and the Republican ticket and provided for a visit in a body 

390 



to the home of the nominee. They came headed by Bishops J. J. Esher, 
Thomas Bowman, William Horn, 8. C. Bryfogle, and accompanied by the 
aiinisters and a few prominent members of the church at Cleveland and 
f icinity. Bishop Bowman made the introductory address and said that ninety- 
nine out of every hundred of their voting membership would be found support- 
ing Major McKinley and the Republican ticket "Our church stood by the 
Government until rebellion surrendered its sword at Appomattox and the old 
Bag was triumphant," said Bishop Bowman. "And now, after a mistaken indus- 
trial policy has paralyzed business and compelled labor to beg for employment, 
it is proposed as a remedy practically to repudiate our National obligations, 
bringing dishonor upon us and still crippling business and labor by lowering the 
standard of our currency. (Applause.) And now, w^hen anarchy is abroad in 
the land boldly assailing the highest judiciary of our Government and the 
President of the United States for maintaining law and order, and thereby 
giving notice that if the reins of government are put into the hands of this 
dangerous element, mob law will reign supreme, the members of our church, 
although usualjy not much interested in politics, will go to the polls and deposit 
their votes for the standard-bearer of the party of protection, sound money and 
good government." (Ai^plause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" Bishop Bowman and Fkllow Citizens: It gives me extreme pleasure to 
meet i he representatives of the Board of Missions and of Publication of the 
Evangelical Association of the United States. It is indeed to me a very high 
eompliment to have a body like yours turn aside from its business sessions that 
bring it together, to make a visit to my home to give me assurances of your sup- 
port and of the devotion which you have for the principles, for which I stand. 
(Appla^ise.) I appreciate this call. I should expect from a body of religious 
men that they would stand by public honor and public honesty, in the manner 
jour Bishop has described. (Applause.) I should expect from you that you 
would stand by public law and public tranquility and public security, and the 
feonor of the country to which you belong. (Applause.) It is the proud boast 
©f American institutions that every citizen beneath our flag can worship God 
•ecording to the dictates of his own conscience in every corner of this great 
leountry. I am always glad to meet a body of men who have dedicated their 
Ji-ves to the improvement and betterment of humanity, for as you better its 
condition you elevate citizenship and when y,)u elevate citizenship you have 
exalted country. I thank you sincerely for this call and bid you good after- 
jBoOn." (Great applause.) 

THE WHEELING QIANT5. 

Wheeling, West Virginia, probably carried oflf the honors in parade, Saturday, 
October 10th. Two trains of twelve cars each, on the Cleveland Terminal and Yal- 
fey road brought 2,000 of these enthusiastic Eepublicans. The delegation formed 
and marched to the McKinley home. At the head of the column was Meister's 
Band. Following came the H. C. Eichard's Six Footers, one hundred strong, 
Bfiiformed in black shakos, black coats and white duck pants and carrying 
torches. They were drilled to perfection and proved the swell marcliing club 
uS the day. The Tariff Champions and Drum Corps came next ; following 
them were the McKinley and Hobart Club, the M. A Hanna Republican Club 
oiBenwood, the B. B. Dovener Republif-an Club, the Riverside Iron Wcrks 

391 



Club, and several hundred members of the McKinley and Hobart Sound Money 
Club. Tlie delegation was cheered every foot of the way from the depot to 
Major McKinlet's home. Introductory addresses were made on behalf of each 
club. H. C. EiCHARDS spoke for the Six Footers, 0. H. HENNmas for the Tariff 
Champions, and Thomas Davidson for the Potters. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Gentlemen: Republicans seem to be on all sides of us this year. (Great 
laughter and applause. A voice 'And Democrats are on our side, too ') And 
many Democrats are with us. (Applause.) I am honored by the call of this 
large assemblage from the State of West Virginia. I am glad to meet these 
tall men (cheers) from the Six Footers' Protection and Sound Money Club of 
"Wheeling. They ought to be, and I am sure they are, giants in this contest for 
National honor. (Cries of 'We are', 'We are.') I am glad to meet the potters 
(great applause from them) of West Virginia. I am glad to meet the iron and 
steel workers (renewed applause) of the Riverside mills. I am pleased to greet you 
all, and glad to feel that the B*<ission upon which you are here, is to 
make Republican principles triumphant on the third day of November. (A voice 
'That's what we are here for,' and great applause. ) Tliere is within every human 
breast a sentiment that moves him to strive to better his condition. The hum- 
blest, those born with least fortune, those with most unfavorable environments, 
— all of them aspire to better things, and all have a right to so aspire. The very 
genius of our free institutions exalts ambition and most men want to lift them- 
selves up, to elevate and improve the condition of their families. The thought 
in every man's mind here, is — How can I better my condition? How can 
I improve the condition of my family? (A voice 'Vote for McKinley.'; The 
answer comes almost with one voice — the way to do it is to protect Ameri- 
can industry and defend American labor. (Tremendous cheering.) Let us do 
our own manufacturing (great applause and cries of 'That's it,' and 'That's the 
stuff') here in the United States. Let us make our own iron and steel (great 
applause) our owti glass — and when we do that we will employ every idle man 
in the United States and bring kope and happiness to every American home. I 
believe in the policy of protection to home industries and to the energies of 
the American people. I do not believe anything is cheap to our people 
that imposes idleness upon a single American citizen. (Loud cheers.) What 
we want is work and wages. Do you believe free trade will aid you? (Cries of 
*No,' 'No,' 'Never.') Do you believe protective tariffs will do it? (Cries of 
'Yes,' 'Yes,' 'Every time.') Then vote that way. (Loud cheers and cries of 
'You bet we will.') Protection never closed an American factory. Protection 
never shut an American mine. Protection never put American labor out on the 
streets. I can not say as much for partial free trade, such as we have experi- 
enced in the last three and one-half years. More than that, my fellow citizens, 
we not only want an opportunity to work, but when we get that opportunity we 
want to be paid in honest dollars worth a hundred cents each. (Continuous and 
vociferous cheering.) We believe neither in free trade nor in free silver. (Re- 
newed applause.) The one debases labor and the other the currency of the 
country. And more than all, you gentlemen, I know, are in favor of the main- 
tenance of law and order. (Applause and cries of 'That's what we are.') Now, 
1 thank you for this call, and trust that the 'Little Mountain State' will in 1896 
repeat the verdicts of 1894 by giving the Republican Party a grand and glorious 
triumph." (Loud cries of 'We will,' 'We will,' followed by three cheers for the 
•'Next President.") 

392 



A DELEGATION OF RAILROAD MEN. 

Two hundred men from points along the Cleveland, Akron and Columbus 
Hailvoad listened to and cheered Major McKinley's response tea simple introt 
tion of the men by John H. Sampson, one of the workingmen. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

" Mr. Sampson and Employes of the Cleveland, Akron and Columbus 
Railroad Company : I give you cordial welcome to my home. I am glad to 
have the assurance, through your spokesman, that you believe that the triumph 
of the principles for which the Republican Party now stands, will be best for 
you and your interests, and so believing, that yon rntend to vote the Republican 
ticket. (Applause and cries of 'We do.') I thank you all for this greeting. I 
feel that you are not strangers to me. (Cries of 'No,' and 'Never,' 'Never.') I 
have been riding over your lines for more than twenty years and I know many 
of you employes personally. I don't know of any business in the country 
where employes can so definitely know the condition of the business of the 
•country as the men who are einployed by railroads. (Great applause.) You know 
it in the shops, you know it in the ticket office, you know it in the freight office, 
you know it in traveling on the trains — every switchman, every brakeman, every 
conductor and every engineer knows the condition of the business of the country 
and of the railroad by the amount of business that railroad does. He knows 
when the country is prosperous, and when it is in a state of depression, and he 
doesn't have to wait for the report of the dii*ectors of the railroad to know 
whether there have been any dividends declared or not. He knows it from the 
amount of work and the amount of wages he receives. (Applause.) Now, my 
fellow citizens, you are prosperous when the country is pi'osperous and it is 
prosperous when it takes care of its own people, its own manufactures, its own 
mines and products and its own labor. The country is prosperous when we 
have plenty of labor, if we are paid in good money. (Continuous cheering.) 
We want sound money (a voice 'And we are going to get it') and we are going 
always to have it. (Great applause.) I thank you for this call. Thousands in 
other delegations are waiting about me, and with many thanks for your courtesy, 
I must bid you good afternoon." (Three cheers were given for McKinley.) 

A REAL BOY ORATOR. 

One of the unique features of the day was the introduction of the Indiana 
party by Master Clyde Wilvert, knowTi as the "Boy Orator of Indiana," only 
ten years old. He made a political address of several hundred words with all 
the force and energy of an old campaigner. The party he introduced was com- 
posed principally of commercial travelers several hundred in number coming 
from Terre Haute, Evansville and Vincennes, Indiana. With this party came 
J. J. Shuttleworth, a former Cantonian, who presented the party and then 
Introduced the youthful orator. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

*' My Fellow Citizens: With the delegations that are now waiting, you 
must expect little more from me than a poor acknowledgment of the honor and 
compliment you pay me by your call. I am glad to meet the citizens of Indian- 

393 



apolis, Terre Haute, Vincennes and Evansville, Indiana, who visit our city 
to-day. I am glad to have brought to me a message from that distinguished 
statesman, and patriotic citizen, who for more than sixty years has given his 
life to the country — the Hon. Biohard W. Thompson, of Terre Haute. (Great 
applause.) I beg that you will convey to him my best wishes and my hope for 
his continued health and happiness. I am glad to meet the people from the 
State of Lane and CoLPAX, MoETON and Harrison. (Applause.) lam pleased 
with the assurances of your spokesmen that this year the people of Indiana 
stand for sound money and the honest payment of the Government's debts. 
(Applause and cries of 'You bet we do.') I am glad to know that in this vast 
throng no voice of repudiation is heard and that this year, as in IS80, when you 
voted for the distinguished and illustrious Garfield (applause,) and in 1888 
when you voted for your own distinguished fellow citizen. General Harrison 
(applause,) you will vote this year for the same party and the same principles, 
which they represented — principles involving National honor and the prosperity 
of all our people. I thank you for this visit and wish you all a safe return to 
your homes." (Great cheering.) 

CLEVELAND ROLLING MILL MEN. 

The employes of the Cleveland Eolling Mill Company, 2,500 in number, were 
* introduced by T. L. Hopkins of the wire department, and .Tames Bampton of 
the iron works department. The latter, as a plain, blunt workingman, 
enthusiastic to the highest degi'ee, made his introductory address one of the 
unique features of the day. In the midst of his talk he began the singing of the 
old church hjmn, "Dare to Be a Daniel," and the Forest City Quartette, which 
came with the delegation, took up the refrain paraphrasing the words into a 
very excellent campaign song. The sentiment expressed by Mr. Bampton was that 
"The people want work, they are able to work, they are willing to work, but 
the Democrats wiU not let them do so." To correct this, he said, protection is 
necessary; a dollar worth a dollar is a necessary adjunct to protection ; these 
must come through a Republican administration, the highest type of which would 
be secured with Major McKinley at the head. Mr. Hopkins said: "While 
fads and frauds and demagogues have been having their day ; while the people 
have been deceived into following strange gods, you have stood firmly by the 
simple, sensible and successful policy which has made possible such splendid 
enterprises as the one we represent here, to-day. And because we believe in 
that policy, because we remember your services for it and your loyalty to it, 
we esteem it a great privilege to meet you." (Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens : I wish I might make fitting response to this great 
audience and worthily say the proper words to my fellow citizens. Nothing 
touches me more deeply than to have around and about me, assuring me of 
their support, the workingmen of the United States. (Great cheering and 
blowing of horns. ) They are the bone and sinew of the country and the mighty 
conservative force which in every perilous crisis of our history must be relied 
upon to preserve National honor and the supremacy of law. (Great cheering 
and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') I am more than glad to meet at my home the 
workingmen of the Cleveland IloUing Mill Company (tremendous shouting-') 
and the AVire Mill employes (Renewed cheers.) I have met you before, i 



have addressed thousands of the workingmen who stand a>foat me to-day, .-it 
their homes in Newburg and Cleveland, and I believe th-re is not one of 
you present who would say that I ever sought to deceive or mislead you. 
(Great applause and cries of 'No,' 'No,' and 'Hear,' 'Hear.') I have stood in the 
past as a public servant striving to benefit my fellow man ; to roll the weights 
off his shoulders and to give him a fair and equal chance in the great race and 
contest of life. (Continued applause and cries of 'Hear,' 'Hear.') I believe in 
the American home as the corner-stone of liberty and free institutions, and I have 
always believed that the American home was made best when the head ( f that 
home had plenty to do. (Hurrahs for McKinley.) 1 have ever stood for a (xuv- 
ernmental policy — not one that would prohibit goods from coming into the 
United States, but for a policy that would protect the products of Amer- 
ican labor against the products of the cheaper labor of the old wurid. 
^Continuous cheerirg.) I believe it is our duty to guard and defend 
the American workshop, and when we are doing that, we are defend- 
ing the American home. (Cries of 'That's right,' 'Correct,' and 'Hurrah for 
McKinley.' ) I stand to-day not only for a protective tariff but an hoiieit dollar. 
(Cries of 'Hear,' 'Hear.') A dollar based upon the best money of the world, rec- 
ognized in every center of the world. (Applause.) We have had some experi- 
ence with short hours in the last four years, and we do not want to experiment 
with short dollars now. (A voice, 'No, sir,' 'That's right.') When I addressed 
you last, four years ago, in the old tent at Newburg, a committee waited upon 
me and wanted to know if I v/as in favor of eight hours for a day's work. They 
were discussing the wisdom and advisability of shorter hours for their own 
comfort and for their own advancement and interest. To them I said 'Yes; 
I both voted and spoke for an eight hour law in the service of the United 
States.' Since 1893 I haven't heard a word about shorter hours from the Amer- 
ican workingman. (Loud laughter and continuous applause. A voice, 'They're 
all too short, now.') They are all too short, as my friend tells us. What you 
w\ant is steady employment'. (Cries of 'That's what we want.') Whatever will 
bring you the fa-st is the true Governmental policy, and when you have that, then 
you want to be paid in dollars worth one hundred cents, good not only under 
our flag, but good in every civilized nation of the world. (Applause.) I thank 
you for this call. You have in common with all the electors among our seventy 
millions of people, that supreme and majestic right of ballot. You will exer- 
cise it three weeks from next Tuesday. (Cries of 'Yes, we will.') I bid you 
exercise it in the interests of your own counti-y, your own mills, your own 
communities, and your own homes. I thank you and bid you good evening." 
(Long and enthusiastic applause.) 

VISITORS FROn ST. LOUIS. 

Two special trains from St. Louis arrived over the Cleveland, Canton and 
Southern Railroad, Saturday afternoon. It was some time before sufficient 
space could be cleared about the house for this delegation. It comprised 
1,000 commercial travelers from St. Louis, including the Commercial Men's 
McKinley Club, The Commercial Men's Sound Money Club, which was com- 
posed largely of Democrats, and a small company of citizens from south-eastern 
Missouri. They v?ere jo ned by about a thousand commercial men of Cleve- 
land. A magnificent floral piece, of roses, carnations and ferns, representing a 
•'drummer's grip' encircled in a horse shoe, was presented Mrs. MoKinley by E. 
S. Lewis on behalf of the Missourians. Master Archie F. Phillips presented 

395 



Major McKiNLEY a small American flag, saying: "On behalf of the little boy» 
of the great city of St. Louis, I beg to present you this emblem of freedom, a 
small American flag. May it remind you, when enj a.?pd in the gi*eat alTairs of 
state, that the hearts of the little boys of St. Louis «nd Missouri beat warmly for 
you " Intr( duetory addresses were made by Edgar Skinxer and L. O. Phil- 
lips, of St. Louis, and R. N. Hall, of Cleveland. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" ]\Iy Fellow Citizens: I can turn on either side of methis year and find 
Eepublicans. (Great laughter and applause.) It is quite appropriate and in 
no sense embarrassing to me to speak conjointly to the people of Missouri and of 
Ohio. (Great applause and cries of 'Good, 'Good.') There is one thing glorious, 
about our campaign this year — it is National in character and represents the- 
best hopes and aspirations of the American people everywhere. (Cheers and 
cries of 'That's right.') You are all commercial travelers, and whether from- 
Missouri or from Ohio, you have had similar experiences. (Cries of 'That's 
right.') You leav'e your sample cases at home, now. (Great laughter and ap- 
plause.) If I should talk a little longer and more directly, my fellow citizens 
of Ohio, to my friends from Missouri, it is because I more frequently have an 
opportunity to talk to you than I have to them. (Great cheering on part of 
the OhioHU^.) I luve my old State (here three cheers for Ohio were given at 
the suggestion of one of the Missourians) the State of my birth. I love the 
public spirit and splendid energy of the people of your great city on the lake 
(o-reat cheering on the part of the Oh.ioans) and I have always liked Missouri 
(great cheering on the part of the Missourians) and nothing has occurred this 
summer in St. Louis to make me change my mind. (Tremendous cheering and 
waving of hats.) I welcome you bll to my home and city. I welcome the 
commercial travel»-rs of St. Louis, the citizens of Missouri, and the Sound 
Money Clubs, of St. Louis, composed of men of all political parties (gi-eat 
cheering) who stand this yearfor the honor of our Government and the integrity 
of our financial system. (Great applause and cries of 'That's true.') "We are 
all citizens of a common country. This year, as in all the years of the future, 
I trust we have 'No North, no South, no East, no West, (cries of 'Good,' 
'Good') but Union and Union Forever.' (Great cheering.) We have but one 
flag, too, (great applnuse) like the one brought me by my young friend from 
iMissturi. [Major McKinley here exhibited a small flag, which was followed 
by tremendous cheering.] It is the flag we all love and which we mean to 
trinsmit to future generations unsullied and stainless. (Great cheering.) I 
hiid a speech especially prepared for Missouri, but I believe I will not make it 
l)at take leave to print. (Great applause and cries of 'Go on.') This is the fif- 
teenth delegation that I have w^el^omed here to-day. (Applause.) Missouri, 
like Ohio, needs protection, sound money and public confidence. (Greatcheer- 
ing and cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') You have a hundred and fifteen counties in 
your State and I understand that there is not a single county that does not 
j-roduce'^zinc, iron, coal, or lead beneath its soil. (Cries of 'That's right.') 
What you want is the touch-stone of confidence, which will bring business 
activity and send every miner with his pick to dig out from the bowels of the 
(> ii-lh those treasures of nature. (Great appkuse and cries of 'Right you are.') 
\V'- want in this country a tariff policy which will supply the Government witli 
hufticient revenue and protect every workingman. (Great cheering. )» Why, 
Missouri, away back in the days of Thomas Benton was called the 'Bulliou 

816 



State.' Has she deteriorated since then? (Cries of 'No,' 'No.') Will the great 
commercial city of St. Louis, with its intricate and delicate threads of trade and 
commerce, will it vote for a policy or for a party that will destroy confidence, 
unsettle values, impair the city's welfare, and produce panics of unprecedented 
severity? (Loud cries of 'No,' 'Never.') I do not believe it will. (Avoice'We 
will give you 30,000 majority in St. Louis,' followed by great applause.) A 
friend from Missouri says that Missouri will give our ticket 30,000 majority. 
(Cries of 'No, St. Louis will give you 30,000 majority.') What answer will Ohio 
make to that? (Cries of '150,000') Ohio answers 150,000. (Tremendous 
cheering.) Well, 80,000 in Missouri is a greater majority than 150,000 in Ohio. 
(Great cheering.) This year patriotism is above party. (Applause and cries of 
'That's right.') Men love their country more than they love their old political 
associations. (Renewed applause.) Men this year would rather break with 
their party than break up their business. (Tremendous cheering.) Now, I am 
told that the Missourians have not had anything to eat since morning. (Laugh- 
ter and applause.) I do not know how the Ohioans have fared but the average 
Ohioan always manages to look out for his dinner. (Great laughter and ap- 
plause.) My fellow citizens, Missourians and Ohioans, I am glad to meet you 
and beg you will carry my message of good will back to your homes. I can not 
imagine anything that could happen to strengthen the American Union more 
than to have the men of the South and of the North come together 
and jointly administer the Government. (Applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.' ) 
Let your verdict this year be for honest money, public security. National tran- 
quility, a protective tariff and reciprocity. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 
'We'U vote all right.') Above all let there sound forth a verdict for this Na- 
tion, for law and order, and for their enthronement in every corner of the 
Republic. (Great cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') I thank you all 
and bid you good afternoon." (Three cheers were, then given for McKinley.) 



PITTSBURG BUSINESS MEN. 

A visit of more than usual interest was that of the bankers and the bankers' 
clerks of Pittsburg and Allegheny, who arrived on the afternoon of October 
10th. The local commercial men received them with cordiality and escorted 
them through the business portion of the city. They were also escorted by the 
Pittsburg Six-Footers, a military political club famous for its fine uniform and 
good drilling. George R. Petit of the Pittsburg Times, introduced the party. 

riajor HcKinley's Response. 

" Fellow Citizens : I bid you a hearty welcome to my home. I wish you 
might have been able to see, as I have witnessed to-day, a most remarkable 
demonstration, coming from more than a dozen States of the Union — a demon- 
stration in favor of the Republican Party, Republican principles, sound money 
and a protective tariff. (Great applause.) I am glad to know that the mem.- 
bers of the Six Footers' Club and their friends are enrolled in the Republican 
cause. (Applause.) I observe that the friends are more numerous than the 
Six Footers. (Laughter and applause.) The reason for that is easily accounted, 
for, I take it, for every man must be six feet high who belongs to your associa- 
tion, and that, of course, excludes a great many of us. I am certainly glad to 

397 



have you come and give me assurances of your support. This is a year when 
partisanis'.n counts but for little and patriotism counts for everything. (Great 
cheering. ) "We stand this year, not for party merely, but for that which is good 
and honest in government (applause and cries of 'Right') and we propose on the 
third day of November to cast our ballots for public honesty, good government, 
S)und money and protection. Great cheering and 'Hurrahs for McKinley.,) I 
thank you all and bid you good afternoon." (Renewed cheers.) 

SEWING riACHINE COflPANY'S EHPLOYES. 

Some five hundred men employed by the White Sewing Machine Company 
in its Cleveland plant were next addressed, after being introduced by H. G. 
HiTOHCOCE, who said that his co-workers in the factory were a unit for protec- 
tion and sound money. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens: It gives me pleasure to receive this call from the 
■employes of the White Sewing Machine Company, of Cleveland, and the mem- 
bers of the Thirty-third Ward Republican Club. (Applause.) I am glad to be 
assured by your spokesman that you believe that the triumph of Republican 
principles will be your triumph and will be for the benefit of all the industrial 
interests of the United States. (Great applause.) 1 am glad to be assured, also, 
that you believe in the great American policy of protection. (Applause and 
cries of 'We do.') The Republican Party believes that such tariffs should be 
levied upon foreign goods as will give adequate protection to American labor and 
afford the American scale of wages. (Tremendous cheering. ) I am glad that you 
believe that we should have in this country the best money in the world. (Ap- 
plause.) We want dollars worth a hundred cents all the time and worth a 
hundred cents everywhere. (Great applause and cries of 'That's correct.') We 
want dollars as sound as the Government itself and as stainless as oui* flag. 
{Great cheering and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') This is the kind of money we have 
now and this is the kind of money the Republican Party proposes, if given the 
power, to continue. (Applause.) It stands opposed to a fifty-two cent dollar. 
(Cries of 'We don't want them.') I am glad to meet and greet you all. I wish 
for you happiness in your homes and prosperity in your various occupations. 
(Great cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley'.) I bid you all good 
afternoon." (Renewed cheering.) 



CLEVELAND COMniSSION MERCHANTS. 

At six o'clock, Saturday, October 10th, the Commission Merchants' Sound -^ 
Money Club of Cleveland, four hundred strong, marched up the street to the Mc- 
Kinley residence. Mr. B. IVIahler w^as spokesman, and said : "Major McKinley, 
we are here to testify as to our loyalty to you and to the principles you represent. 
iMore than ninety per cent, of the commission men of the country ai-e for the 
Republican Party, sound money and protection. The free trade policy has 
ruined our business. We want to get back to the prosperity we had before 1893. 
These men, whom I now have the pleasure of pi'esenting, are honest and thinking 
voters, who are permitted to and wiU vote as they think best without fear or 
favor." (Applause.) 

898 



riajor McKinley's Response. 

" Gentlemen : I am glad to receive the produce commission merchants of 
the city of Cleveland. I am pleased at the assurance of your spokesman of 
your earnest support of the cause which, for the moment, I represent, and your 
purpose to make that the more effective on the third day of November. I am 
glad to be assured by him, also, that ninety per cent, of the produce and com- 
mission merchants of the United States stand for honest money, a protective 
tariff, the supremacy of law, and the return of confidence to our business world. 
(Cries of 'Amen.') Your spokesman in his remarks calls to ray mind the fact, 
and reiterates well the statement I have always made, that free trade or partial 
free trade, benefits no interest in the United States. (Applause and cries of 
'That's right.') It is an expense to you. The lowering of tariffs or the removal 
of the tariff altogether from farm products, has injured the farmers of the 
country, not only the farmers situated along the border, but those in the interior. 
The free trade policy has reduced manufacturing and mining and the activity 
of industrial enterprises generally, and this lack of activity has very much inter- 
fered with and disturbed the business of the produce and commission merchants 
of the United States. We have been injured in every direction ; injured as 
producers ; injured as consumers ; injured as commission merchants. The true 
policy of our Government is to protect the enterprises and industries of the 
American people. I think protection should be to the American people 
what Burke said of liberty — 'It should free all or it should free none.' I am glad to 
meet you as friends and neighbors from our neighboring city. The city of 
Cleveland is very dear to my heart — the greatest city on the lake, within fifty 
miles of my home, a city that in all the years of the past has given me its sym- 
pathy, its support and its confidence. I congratulate you that this year, after 
three and a half years of experience under a Democratic Administration, 
we are to return, I trust, by your ballots and the ballots of all the people, to that 
policy under which for more than thirty years we enjoyed unprecedented pros- 
perity in every field and occupation of human industry. (Great applause.) 
I have but just a single word more to say, and that is, put on your ballots what 
is in your hearts. Goodnight." (Three cheers.) 



A NOTABLE CROWD OP RAILROAD MEN. 

The Cleveland commission men had not reached the foot of the hill on I\Iarket 
street until a tremendous crowd was seen coming to take their places. It 
proved to be the largest delegation of the day and encluded men from 
the Cleveland and Pittsburg, Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, Nickle Plate, 
Big Four, Cleveland Terminal and Valley, and Cleveland, Canton and South- 
ern railroads. The bulk of the crowd came fifom Cleveland and Wellsville, but 
all points along the lines represented sent recruits. They come in uniforms 
With flying banners and rich transparencies ; with bands galore and enthusiasm 
unbounded. The Forty-first Ward DriU Corps, of Cleveland, presented a royal 
appearance, and the Lake Shore boys, in blue and gold, showed to good advan- 
tage under the electric lights. Mr. Arthur M. White, of Cleveland, presented 
the delegation which numbered over three thousand. He said in part : "AYe 
do not pay this visit to Canton coerced by a grasping combination of capitalists, 
as our political opponents would have the public believe, but we came of our 
own free will and accord to see and know the standard bearer of the Republican 
Party, who so ably represents the principles in which we believe." (Aijplause.) 

399 



flajor MeKlnley'8 Response. 

•*Mit. WHiiaiJri) HTFEi/Lo^OinzBNst It is a mighty oanse that would 
l^ng together this yast assemblage from the States of New York.Peimsylvania, 
Ohio, Indiana, Dlinois and MIohigan, (a voice, 'And West Virginia') and West 
Virginia, representing those three great railroad lines, the Lake Shore, the 
Pennsylvania, the Nickel Plate (tremendous applause), and those other roads 
which are our nearest neighbors, the Valley, and the Cleveland, Oanton and 
Southern (applause) and also the Big Four (applause) which I have only re- 
served for the last. (Laughter.) It is, my fellow citizens, only the deep 
and earnest solicitude you have for the rightful settlement of the pending ques- 
tions in our political campaign that has brought you here to-night. You know 
from experience, if you would prosper in your employments, that there must be 
prosperity in every branch of American industry. You know that when the 
producer suffers the roads that carry the produce suffer. (Applause and cries 
of 'Right you are.') You know that when the manufacturer suffers by dimin- 
ished manufactures, you suffer in your employment (cries of 'Right,' 'Right,') 
and the more work and wages there are in other industries in the country, the 
steadier is your employment and the better your wages. ((}rles of 'That's 
right,' and 'That is what we want.') The best road in the world to work for is 
(a voice 'The Nickle Plate ;' other voices, 'Pennsylvania Road ;' 'Big Four ;' — the 
riiouting and friendly rivalry of the different roads represented, interfering for 
several moments with the continuation of the address, but when silence was ob- 
tained tlie thread was taken up again.) I like this joyous rivalry — each of you 
for your own road, but all of you for one country. (Tremendous applause and 
waving of flags and blowing of horns.) I say that the best road to work for is a 
sound road. (Here again the shouts for the different roads were repeated.) And 
the best money to be paid in, whichever road you work for, is soimd money, 
(tremendous applause) that is worth a hundred cents on the dollar in every 
State of the American Union, and in every market of the world. (Oontinuous 
cheering.) This is the kind of money we have now, and is the kind of money 
that you are paid in — ^when you have employment, and it Is the kind of money 
the Republican Party means you shall stiU have if you give it the chance. 
(Renewed cheers.) I made a visit to the State of Georgia last year. There 
came into my car one of the employes of the Southern road on which I was 
traveling. I invited him to sit down. He was a born Georgian and he told me 
he had always been a Democrat, but that for three years he had been going to 
school in that best of all univer^sities — experience. (Laughter and applause.) 
He took off his official cap, and said to me : 'I have on my cap that which will 
tell you how I have been promoted downward. (Laughter.) First, he showed 
me the word 'Trainman.' He said 'That's what I am now.' Then he displaced 
that and said, 'That's what I was before — ^Brakeman.' Then he raised that and 
said 'What you see now the position I held three years ago, I was a Conductor. 
And, said he, 'those stages express to you what I have lost by the change of Ad- 
ministration, which I helped to effect.* (Laughter and applause.) I do not 
know whether any of you have had any such experience as that or not. (Cries of 
'Yes, some of us have,' and applause.) You evidently have had. Now the only 
reason, as my Greorgla friend explained to me, for this change of position to 
him, was because the railroads did not have the traffic they had had three years 
previous. They did not require so many employes. He was a faithful employe, 
and when they said, 'We don't need so many conductors, but we want you to 
stay,' he took a grade downward rather than leave the service of tlie company, 

400 



and afterwards had to take another step backAvaxd. Now, what we want to do 
as to restore prosperity to this country and give the railroads plenty to liaui, 
and when they have tliat, then you will have your old Jobs back again at the old 
places, and at the old or better pay (gi-eat cheering and blowing of horns) in 
good sound money. J am glad to meet and greet you here today. You are of 
the last to come— and they have been coming since eight o'clock this morning. 
(Laughter and applause.) You. may be last to come, but are not least in a 
cordial welcome to my home and to my heart." (Great cheers.) 

THE POUSIi-AnERICAN CLUBS. 

The last to arrive were the Polish-American Olubs of Cleveland, numbering 
1,200 men. They. were accompanied by Mayor McKisson, who stated that the 
Polish-Aojericans represented Republican principles in every detail. He 
inti educed William Wei.pkld who spoke in behalf of his countrymen. 

riajor HcKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I am much honored by this visit from my Polish- 
.Amerxcan fellow citizens. You are proud of your fatherland and you are 
proud of your adopted land, the United States of America. We all acknowl- 
edge the contribution of your country to our freedom and independence, and 
we are glail tc count you among those safe, conservative and freedom-loving of our 
fellow citizens who will always be found standing for the flag and the honor of 
the country which it represents, (Cheers.) I am glad to know from your 
spokesman that this year, whatever may have been your party relations in the 
past, you are Eepublicans and intend to support the Republican ticket because 
you believe that with the triumph of that party your best interests will be si.b- 
served. (Great applause.) I welcome you Polish-American citizens as I wel- 
come all my fellow citizens, native born and naturalized, of every nationalit , 
as allies in this great fight for a protective tariff, for a good currency, for peact-, 
law, order and the triumph of right and justice. I thank you for this call 
&nd wish you all a happy return home and with these words bid you good 
aight.'" (Three cheers were given for McKinley.) 

A GREAT TORCHLIGHT PARADE. 

It is seldom that a Presidential candidate is permitted to witness such a 
demonstration in honor of his own candidacy as that Major McKinley looked 
mpon from the reviewing stand in front of his home on the night of Saturday, 
October 10th. There may have been longer processions and greater bodies of 
fjeople gathered in Canton, but never was there a more beautiful and inspiring 
parade or one that was more enthusiastic. It was a procession of drilled clubs 
representing the flower of Republicanism from a half dozen States. The spec- 
tacular effect was attractive and the people who crowded the sidewalks to wit- 
ness the maneuvering and counter-marching attested their appreciation in an 
appreciative manner. Canton Troop headed the column. Baltimore followed, 
her band making the night musical with "jMaryland, My Maryland." Wheeling 
with her Six Footers, her Tariff Champions, Riverside Iron Workers, and the 
M. A. Hanna Club, of Benwood, West Virginia, were next in line. Cleveland 
was there with her Forty-first Ward McKinley Drill Corps in natty uniforms. 
Lebanon, Pennsylvania, with the best drum corps that visited Canton and a su- 

401 



1 e b band had a large :i(inad of ari.Ued mon in !i,ii'. -.';. Louis was 
by her Commercial Travelers, and Canton brought up the rear wi 
: md, the Young America;n Club, First Ward Club and the Honest i 

very delegation and club seemed to look better and march stndghti.- . 

e just gihead of it, wnd it would have been difficult to find luult wii 
ter the parade the visitors, who were not ready to go home, ^ ■"" ■ 

ving shori; parades and concerts upon the streets, and the 1 
was close at hand when the noise and enthusiasm of the day ,.n: iiy ■ 
subdued. Following the great parade of the evening, ai fine audience 
bUM at the Tabernacle. Prominent members of the Grand Army Club, ■ 
t'more, occupied the platform and the Maryland State flag was consjuc 
the decorations of the hall. It was Maryland night in Canton, all the !:>; 
except one, and he was originaDy from thai. State, were fioln "My Y^hi 
Major Beaokett called the assemblage to order introducing Mr. J. 
a* president of the meeting. Phillip G. Wade sang the "Star Span.£;; 
as a solo, the audience joining in the chorus. Major John V. L. i 
the principal speaker and he was given careful hearing, his telling pojm ^ u. r.r^ 
cheered again and again. Others who were called for and made piristint 
response were Judge James J Grant, Col. Fkank J. Supplee, Col. GBOKOi; A. 
Pierce and Hon. J. Cookman Boyd. 

niNER5, PARHERS AND HERCHANTS. 

The first delegations of the week scheduled to visit Major MoKinlet came 
as one party, Ro-coe, Pennsylvania uniting with the representatives of tlip ISlo- 
nongahela coal district. They numbered about six hundred people, and aj-rived 
about 12:30 o'clock, Monday, October 12th, on a special train of eleven coaches 
over the Cleveland, Canton and Southern railroad. The towns of Oharleroi, 
Bellevernon , Fayette City, Roseoe, Coal Centre, California and Brownsville, 
each were represented by a McKinley and Hobart Club. The Pioneer Club and 
the Umbrella Club of Charleroi were handsomely uniformed. With the delo- 
gations came the Eoscoe Band, the Charleroi Drum Corps and an excellert 
Glee Club composed of colored men from the different towns in the valley. 
The crowd was mainly composed of miners, but also contained a number of 
farmers, glass-workers, and others. Rain was falling when the train ayrived 
and the visitors were taken to the Tabernacle, where M«i.ior McKinley went to 
receive their greetings and welcome them. While waitii^g for him there was a 
variety of instrumental and vocal music. When he finally appeared 
tliere was deafening applause which lasted for many minutes. The venerable 
George V. 'Lawrence, over eighty years of age, and a member of Congi-ess for a 
number of years, was their spokesman. He addressed Major McKinley as an old 
associate and friend and introduced the visitors as his neighbors, representing min- 
ing, farming, professional, business and laboring interests. On behalf of the visit- 
ors Mr. Lawrence presented Major McKinley a handsomely gold-mounted cane, 
fashioned from a piece of an old time corner cupboard in the house in which the 
late James G. Blaine was born. On bshalf of the glass-workers of Bellevernon, 
he offered a specimen of their handiwork, a glass cane of handsome design. 
The reception of Major MoKinley's response was particularly enthusiastic, and 
when he had concluded and the visitors were given an opportunity to sh;;ke 
his hand there was gi-eat eagerness to do so. During the handshaking there was 
more music and demonstrations of applause. 

-!02 



ilajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Mb. Lawrence AND My Fellow Citizens : I am gratified to meet at my 
home, citizens of Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties, Pennsyl- 
vania, and to thank you for your friendly visit. It has been a source of peculiar 
pleasure to me, to meet my old friend and colleague in the National House of 
Representatives, your venerable spokesman, Mr. Lawbknoe. (Great applause.) 
I always foimd him voting for right things and for the supremacy of Republican 
principles and their embodiment into public law. (Applause.) Western Penn- 
sylvania is filled vdth many proud and historic memories. It contains the 
birthplace of that splendid parliamentarian and gifted statesman and gi-eat 
Secretary of State, James G. Blainb. (Tremendous cheering.) I am pleased 
to accept from the hands of the Fayette Olub this beautiful cane made from 
the wood, of Mr, Blaine's old home— from the house in which he was born in 
Brownsville, and I assure you that it shall always be preserved and kept in my 
family as a precious souvenir. (Oheers. \ You are fortunate, too, in having had 
at one time among your citizens of Fayette County that illustrious financier, 
A.LBEBT Gallatin, who became the first Secretary of the Ti-easury under Thom- 
as Jepfebson, in 1801, and who filled that great office for twelve years. He is 
knovm in the history of our country as one of the greatest Secretaries we. ever 
had, ranking with Alexander Hamilton. (Great applause.) He was a member 
of y'oui- Legislatui-e from Fayette County, a member of the National House of 
Representatives from Western Pennsylvania, and for a brief period in the Sen- 
ate of the United States, but was called to fill the gi-eat office of Secretary of the 
Treasury. (Applause.) It is said that the first resolution he introduced, as 
Congressman was a resolution inquiring about the condition of the Treasury— 
a resolution that is not needed at this time. (Great laughter and applause.) 
He was distinguished for having always insisted that the revenues of the Gov 
ernment should be adequate at all times to meet the public expenditures. One 
of the gi-eatest monuments that he left is, that, during his administration as 
Secretary of the Treasui-y, he reduced the National Debt from $86,000,000 in 1802 
to about $45,000,000 in 1812. It was his proud boast when he made his report to 
Congress, that tliis wonderful reduction of the Public Debt had gone on without 
resorting to internal taxation, either direct or indirect, but that this vast sum 
was provided for by duties upon imports . ( Great cheering. ) This bit of history 
suggests the condition of our own Treasury and of our own people. For three 
years and a half the Government has been borrowing money to live upon, and 
the people have been doing likewise very largely. (A voice 'That's what they 
have,' followed by gi-eat laughter and applause.) We want to stop that, some- 
how,' both as to the Government and people. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 
applause.) We will not be able to do it at once, for when we are sick it takes a 
long time to recover our normal vitality. (Great applause.) But there ought 
to be no question that there devolves upon the American people, and those in 
charge of public affairs, the adoption of some policy, and that right speedily, 
which vdll first provide enough money to run the Government of the United 
States. (Cries of 'We want protection,' followed by gi-eat applause. ) We ought 
not to resort to the issuing of bonds in the time of peace, except to preserve 
the credit and honor of the Government. (Applause.) That opens up the 
question as to what policy will save us. (A voice, 'A protective policy,' and 
cries of 'Con-ect,' 'CoiTect.') I adopt the suggestion. (Great laughter and ap- 
plause.) I do not know of anything that will do it better than protection, 
(cries of 'You are right') for it is a proud fact in American history that in all 

403 



the years — at least for the greater part — under which we have had a protective 
tariff ,we have always had ample revenues to conduct the expenses of the Gov- 
ernment. (Applause.) Kow, that policy wisely and judiciously apph'od vn 
public law, is one of the first and most important acts for the people to perform. 
(Cries of 'Right,' 'Eight.') They can not do it, however, without a Republican 
Congi-ess and a Republican Administration. (A voice, 'We'll get them, all 
right.') The only power that can make a protective tariff Congi'ess is vested in 
the American people ; and the only power that can make a protective tariff Ad- 
ministration, is the American people. By yoiu* ballots, three weeks from to- 
morrow, in conjunction with your fellow citizens in every part of the country, 
you will determine whether or not this policy shall prevail for the next four 
years. What will your answer be, men of Pennsylvania? (Cries of Tor Mc- 
Kestley and Protection,' and tremendous cheering.) My fellow citizens, I am 
in favor of that policy for another reason — ^because while it provides adequate 
revenue, it encovu-ages the industries and occupations of the American people. 
(Great applause and cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') Your old Valley, to which your 
spokesman has referi-ed so eloquently, as far back as in the days of Hexrt 
Clay, was pointed to as typifying the magnificent blessings of a protective tariff. 
(Applause.) All this splendid and remarkable development has been the result 
first, as Mr. Lawrexce has said, of the blessings of Providence, and then by that 
policy which has encouraged the energy and activity and genius and skill of the 
American people to dig down to and develop those great treasures of wealth 
which nature has so bountifully provided. (Applause.) There is a notion in 
some quarters that what we need to bring about prosperity is free silver. 
(Great laughter and cries of 'No,' 'No;' 'We don't want it.') I do not believe it 
would be any freer to you under free coinage than it is now. (Cries of 'No, it 
wouldn't.') There would be but one way f or the workingman to get it, and that 
would be to earn it. (Cries of 'Right.') There would be just one way for the 
farmer to get it, and that would be to sell his products. (Renewed cries of 
'Right.') There would be just one way for the merchant to get it — the old- 
fashioned way — which would be to sell his goods over the counter and give 
something for the money he gets. (Cries of 'Right,' continued.) That is the 
only way you could get it if we coined all the silver in the world. Besides, did 
it ever occur to you, that money does not make work? Work makes money. 
(Great applause and cries of 'That's a fact.') There is just as much money in 
this country today as there was from 1870 to 1890, and more. But what is the 
trouble? (Cries of 'No work,' 'No work.') Yes, no work. It is work that puts 
money into circulation. (Cries of 'Right you are.') Money does not want to be 
idle any more than labor does. Tlie man wno has money wants tliat money to 
be earning something and the only reason he does not put it out now is because 
he is afraid he will never get it back, or if he does get it back that it will be in 
depreciated cui'rency. (Great applause.) When he does not put his money 
out and it does not circulate, then there is no work. (Applause and cries of 
'That's so.') When you have idle men and idle money, distress and suffering 
prevail. (Great applause.) Now, I do not know what you think, but I think that 
you can not have money too good. (Applause and cries of 'That's riglit.') 
When a miner has performed a week's work — I do not know how long it has 
been since he has performed a full week's work, (great cheering) when the miner 
in the mines and the glassblower in the glass works and the workingman in 
any occupation has performed his week's work and has a week's pay, that pay 
represents the value of his labor for six days does it not? (Cries of 'Yes', 'Yes.') 
WeU, now, does he not want the money so received to be the best in the world? 

404 



(Great applause and cries of 'Sure,' 'Sure.') Does he not want that wliich 
represents his six day's work to have as much purchasing power as any money 
anywhere in the world? (Cries of 'Yes.') And when you have received dol- 
lars worth one hundred cents in purchasing power you want to know that they 
will not lose, but that they will keep that one hundred cents worth of purchas- 
ing power. (Tremendous cheering.) This is the kind of money we have now 
(cries of 'Our money is all right') and it is the kind of money we propose to con- 
tinue to have. (Renewed cheering and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') The money 
that will buy the most is the money that you want, and what you want now is 
an opportunity to earn it. (Great applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKin- 
XEY.') You can not earn it through the mints, but through the mills, the mines, 
the factories, and by honest toil. (Cheers.) We can only do the best we know 
how in this world. "We can only follow the light as God gives us to see he 
light. (Applause and cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') I believe, my fellow citizens, 
that with returning confidence — and confidence is half the capital of the world- 
money will come out from its hiding place, be invested in enterprises all over 
the country and put idle men to work. (Applause and cries of 'That's the stuff.') 
And so believing, I stand for that policy which will most surely restore confi- 
dence. (Cries of 'So do we,' and applause.) Now, having said this much, I 
desire to thank the glass workers for their gift, which I highly value— for any- 
thing that comes from the hands of labor is always cherished by me. (Tre- 
mendous applause and cries of 'What's the matter with McKinley?') There is 
nothing in all this contest that has given me so much satisfaction and encour- 
agement as to feel that the workingmen of the United States are standing for 
the cause which I represent. (Great cheering.) I thank you all for this call, 
and wish for you a pleasant visit in Canton and a safe return to your homes." 
(Great applause.) 

LEHIGH VALLEY niNERS. 

After traveling all night and well into the forenoon, a party of about three 
hundred residents of Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, representing the miners and 
mechanics of that territory, reached Canton on a special Cleveland, Canton and 
Southern train, Tuesday morning, October 13th. The weather being inclement 
the visitors were taken to the Tabernacle where Major McKinley joined 
them. The mining towns of Shamokin, Hazelton, Freeland and Wilkesbarre 
were represented in the party. The introductory address was made by ex- 
Congressman Charles N. Brumm, who said: 

"Major McKinley : The anthracite coal miners of Pennsylvania, who, we 
believe, are more deeply interested in our protective system than any others, and 
who, we know, are more indebted to you than any living man for the promotion 
and maintenance of that system, have come to congratulate you on your nomi- 
nation ; to bring glad tidings of good cheer from our mountain home, and to 
extend our heartfelt gi-atitude for the able, honest and efficient work you have 
done for us and the industrial, commercial and agricultural classes of the whole 
country. While miners and kindred laborers shared the blessings which resulted 
from your efforts in a larger degi-ee than perhaps any other class of citizen?, they 
ai-e now suffering more keenly than others the result of the overthrow of your 
work, for our product being the most potential factor in the creation of all 
conditions is necessarily the most sensitive to all disturbances and fluc- 
tuations. (Applause.) A philosopher of old, in speaking of physical forces, 
said: 'Give me a fulcrum on which to rest, and I will move the earth,' 

405 



but the miners of coal can truly say, 'With our brawn and brains we supply 
the product that is the fulcrum and the lever that moves the world today ;' 
and that, too, in a higher sense than was contemplated by the philosopher, 
for our coal flashes the light thatillumines the road to prosperity, generates 
the heat that crystalizes the crude atoms of nature into the products of 
civilization, and furnishes the motive power for all our material progi-ess. 
(Applause.) Therefore, any policy that stays America's onward march, 
strikes a deadly blow at our miners and all interested in them and with 
them. Sir, we come not only to greet you as our benefactor, and to tell you that 
throughout the entire Keystone State you are honored as a soldier, appre- 
ciated as a statesmen, and admired as a noble type of the true American man, 
but we also come to pay respects to you as the next President of the United 
States, and to assure you that Pennsylvania will emphasize her devotion to 
you and the principles you represent by a majority of over a quarter of a 
million. (Applause.) Moreover, we assure you that we hope to send a 
solid Republican delegation to Congi-ess to assist in passing another 'Bill 
McKinley bill,' and to strengthen your Executive arm that you can administer 
this Government on just, safe and economic business principles." (Cheers.) 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Mb. Brumm and My Fellow Citizens : You have greatly honored me in 
having journeyed so long a distance to bring assurances of good will. I do not 
take this call as in any sense personal to myself but rather as a tribute to the 
cause which for the moment I stand, and to the gi'eat principles the Eepub- 
lican Party upholds in the pending political contest. It gives me pleasure to 
meet my old friend, your spokesman, with whom I served for years in the 
National House of Representatives. It also pleases me to meet and welcome 
you in Canton and to say that I a^jpreciate most highly your visit and the en- 
couraging message you bring. (Applause.) It was scarcely necessary to ad- 
vise me that the people of the anthracite regions are in favor of a protective 
tariff. (Applause.) I have long known and appreciated that fact, and sym- 
pathize with you in that sentiment. I believe in that great American doctrine 
which lies at the foundation of self preservation. I believe it is the duty of 
this Government to encourage its own people and to pass such laws as will give 
them the largest opportunity to improve their condition — the highest scale of 
wages and the gi-eatest encouragement to skill and labor. (Great applause.) 
"We have in this country more free trade than in any other country of the 
world — but it is free trade among ourselves. (Great applause.) With forty- 
five States and seventy millions of people, we are constantly vying with each 
other in every section of our common country for the promotion of the highest 
interests of our respective population. We believe in free trade in the United 
States in the same sense that we believe in the equal and reciprocal obligations 
which belong to every family. (Applause.) We are only a gi-eat National 
family. We trade with each other with absolute freedom and without restraint 
and engage in free and unresentful rivalry in all the occupations, employments 
and industries of our people. The triumphs of one section are the triumphs of 
the other, all working together for the general good. When we have free trade 
with other countries it should be in those products which we can not produce 
ourselves and which we must have, and in exchange for which, those countries 
will take the products that we make and gi*ow. We should put a duty upon 
those foreign products that compete with American products, suflBcient not 

406 



tnly to supply enough revenue for the uses of the Government, but suflBcient 
to protect the American people in their own occupations against the products 
of the cheaper and underpaid labor of the world. (Great cheering.) That 
■eems to me to be the dictates of an enlightened patriotism, and it is certainly 
one of the great fundamental doctrines of the Republican Party. Why 
shouldn't it be so, my feUow citizens? We are one Nation, we have one Con- 
ititution, one flag; we have a common destiny. Other nations have their 
■eparate and independent political organizations for the purpose of working out 
for themselves the highest destiny possible. They owe no allegiance to this 
Government ; they contribute nothing to its support, either in war or in peace ; 
and if they want to come here and compete with our people, we say to them, 
you can do it upon condition that a tariff shall be put upon your products, and 
that tariff will go towards sustaining this Government and at the ssCme time 
wiU be a defense to our own labor and producers. (Tremendous applause.) 
That is the whole doctrine of the tariff. -: If we ever needed it we need it now. 
We need it for the Federal Treasury, for that is in a condition of deficiency. 
We need it for the people of this country, for they, like the Treasury, are 
generally in a condition of deficiency. (Applause.) Now, whatever will put 
money into the Treasury and stop debts and deficiencies and bonds, I take it, 
•verybody will say would be a wise and patriotic thing, no matter what 
political party they have belonged to in the past. I take it that whatever pol- 
icy will encourage our own people to dig coal, to manufacture products, to 
•mploy labor, is the policy that ought to commend itself to every patriotic 
citizen, and if a tariff wiU do those things, the tariff surely is what by our votes 
three weeks from today, we ought to sustain. (Applause.) Pennsylvania has 
always been a protective State. James Buchanan, a Democrat, when he was 
President of the United States, gave some very good advice which is applicable 
to the present situation. H« said : 'No statesman would advise that we should 
go on increasing the National debt to meet the ordinary expenses of the Gov- 
•mment. This would be a ruinous policy. In case of war our credit must be 
our chief resource, at least for the first year, and this would be greatly 
Impaired by having contracted a large debt in time of peace. It is our true 
policy to increase our revenues so as to equal our expenditures. It would be 
ruinojis to continue to borrow.' (Applause.) That is the position of the 
Eepublican Party today. Mr. Randall, a Democrat of great distinction, a man 
of wonderful power, who was always for Pennsylvania, her people and her work- 
ingmen, declared in 1887 in the last speech that he made in the Congress of the 
tJnited States, in opposition to the Mills bill : 'If the farmer ceases to buy the 
products of the manufactm-er, he will certainly cease to sell them, but must sell 
his products in the market where he buys what he consumes himself. Suppose 
last year we had manufactured a thousand millions worth less than we did and 
had gone abroad for these products, expecting to pay for them with agricultural 
products, could a thousand millions more of agricultural products have been 
sold abroad at the price which produce brought here? We sold all the wheat 
and corn and meat products that Europe could take at the price that prevailed. 
Who can teU at wha-t prices Europe would have taken five hundred millions or 
even one liundred millions more of our agricultural products than she did take? 
The mere statement of the proposition is enough to disclose the error on which 
It is founded, and shows the importance of uniting manufacturers with agricul- 
ture, or, as Jepfeeson states it, 'putting the manufacturer by the side of the 
farmer.' In fact, both must in our country depend almost exclusively on the 
home maa-ket. It is folly, if not a crime, to attempt to change it in these 

407 



Respects. It would bring ruin and bankruptcy without the possibility of having 
tuch a result accomplished. The gi-eater the diversity of industries in any 
country, the gi-eater the wealth producing power of tlie people, and the more 
there is for labor and capital to divide, the more Independent tliat country 
becomes.' (Applause.) Now, my fellow citizens, I take it that on the matter of 
the tai'iff, you need no argument ; but it is said our trouble is not the tariff but 
the money, and that the way to have prosperity is to set our mints to running. 
(Great laughter and applause.) I do not believe they would employ any portion 
of the idle miners of the anthracite region, if every mint in the United States 
was started. Whatever may be our employment, we want good money. A 
money that will buy all purchasable things, wherever they are, is better than a 
money that will not. Is not that so? (Cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') A money good 
only in Ohio at its face value, as it used to be in the days of old state banks is 
not as good a money to have for all purposes as money that will pass at its face 
value in every State of the Union. (Cries of 'That's right.') Nor is a money 
that is only current in the United States at its face value, and which must stand 
a discount everywhere else, as good as a money that is current in every civilized 
country. (Great applause.) Which would you rather have for your wages, the 
money with a purchasing power equally good in every part of the world, or lim- 
ited in its purchasing power to a single country or a single State? Which would 
the farmer prefer, a money recognized good and equal the world over, or a 
money whose value and purchasing power is limited to one country? The thing 
called money, and which we give our labor or our products for, is more valuable 
to us if it is good, not somewhere only, but everywhere — not in one place, but 
in every place. (Great applause.) It is a very comforting thing to any- 
body who has money, much or little, to feel all the time that its value 
•can not be affected by hard times or depreciated in his hands by panics, but that 
it rests all the while upon solid and unchangeable value, recognized the world 
over. (Great applause.) Money does not depend upon what we call it — it 
depends upon its value. (Great cheering and cries of 'That's right.') When 
you have earned one hundred dollars, you want to feel you are worth one hun- 
dred dollars (applause) and that it will not be diminished in a day, or a week, or 
a month, or depreciate while it is in your hands, or when it goes out of your 
hands. (Renewed applause.) That is the kind of money we have in this 
country now — the best money knovra to the civilized countries of the world. It 
is to the interest of every workingman, it is to the interest of every citizen 
in the country, no matter what may be his business, to maintain that money 
at its present standard. (Applause.) Now, my fellow citizens, I desire to thank 
you again for the pleasure which this call has given me and wish for you all a 
pleasant day in Canton and a safe return to your homes." (Applause and 
cheers.) 

SANDU5KY COUNTY CITIZENS. 

Nearly a thousand residents of Sandusky County, Ohio, brought their gi-cet- 
Ings to Major McKinley, Tuesday, October 13th. They came over the Inter- 
Urban line from Massillon and over the Cleveland, Canton and Southern Rail- 
road from Kent. A parade was organized on the Square and marched to the 
Tabernacle, already nearly half filled by people who had gone direct to the hall 
from the trains. The party came principally from Clyde, but there were also 
ilelegiitioiis from Bellevue, Fremont and Green Springs. With the people came 
the Clyde Band, the McKinlcy and Hobart Club, under command of Captaia 

408 



W. E. Gillette, the Clyde Glee Club and the High School Sextet. The Glee 
Club and Sextet sang a number of campaign songs in the Tabernacle which 
were much enjoyed and most heartily encored. The delegation was introduced 
by Attorney Thomas Dewey, who said : 

"Major McKinley: Knowing that you had visited our county many times, 
and seeing that you were kept tolerably busy at home these days, we, of San- 
dusky county, concluded that it was our duty, this year at least, to pay you 
a formal call, and we are here ready to carry out our plan. Having the distin- 
guished honor to speak for our delegation, and having accepted it as a pleasant 
duty. I bring to you both encouragement and good cheer. (Applause.) We 
come to let you see that we are in good fighting order. We recaU with much 
pleasure and satisfaction that when for the first time in twenty years we were 
able to give a majority for our State ticket in Sandusky county, your name led all 
the rest. (Applause.) At Fremont, in our county, rests the mortal remains of 
your old Commander, your comrade and your friend, ex-President Ruthekford 
B. Hayes. His body, like that of old John Bbown, 'lies moldering in the grave, 
but his soul goes marching on.' (Applause.) Side by side silently sleep General 
Hayes and his good wife, whom all the world came to know and to love. Near 
them repose the ashes of General Ralph P. Buokland, the 'Hero of Shiloh.' 
He was truly one of God's brave men, true to his country and his country's flag. 
At Clyde, very near the spot where he was born, nui-tured and raised, lies 
buried the earthly remains of one we hold most dear. General James Birdseye 
McPherson. He was a noble, manly man, and, as was said of the old 
Indian Chief Logan, 'he never felt fear.' He gave up his young life on the field 
of battle at Atlanta, booted and spurred, at a time when earthly honors were 
coming to him thick and fast. When the 'Silent Commander,' General Ulysses 
S. Grant, heard that McPherson was no more, he went into his tent and wept 
like a child. Yes, these, your friends and comrades, have gone before, but they 
are not, nor will they be forgotten. We, of Sandusky county, feel today that 
we can take new hope from the recollection of these our honored dead. We 
know, as well as we can know anything, that if living, they would be standing 
with us in this contest. (Applause.) President Hayes looked upon you, sir, 
even 'as a father his son in whom he delighteth.' He foretold gi-eat things in 
store for you ; and we, his neighbors, are seeing his predictions fulfilled. The 
White House is in sight, and when the third of November rolls around, the 
American people, who believe in common old fashioned honesty, will perfect 
youi- title thereto. (Applause.) Now, in conclusion, permit me to say, we can 
not altogether forget the past, although it may not count for much, for our 
opponents tell us that personal worth, honor and character count not in this 
campaign. They tell us money is the paramount issue. Yet somehow we can 
not quite forget (boys, though many of us were) the dark days of '61. We can 
still hear the far distant roll of the drum beat and the shrill notes of the fife at 
the recruiting station. We fancy that we again see the boys march away, 
many of them never to return. Who were among those boys in blue? Some 
of us were then too young to go. We were at home playing war with tin guns 
and rattle drums. But you, sir, have to your credit an honorable record of 
things done. (Applause.) You joined the ranks as a private soldier ; you went 
forth at your country's call ; you did your full duty in defending your country 
and the flag of our gi-eat Nation. You believed, in the words of the immortal 
J.INOOLN, that 'This Government of the people, for the people and by the people 
should not perish from the earth.' " (Applause.) 

409 



After his address Major MoKinlbt shook hands with each of the visitors 
and then the party went informally to the McKinley home where a box of 
magnificent roses were presented to Mrs. MoKixley on behalf of the ladies of 
Clyde. A framed picture of the spring and grounds at Green Springs was also 
presented. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Dbwbt, Ladees and Gentlemen and My Fbllow Citizen* : I give you 
warm welcome to my home. You are not strangers to me, for more than once 
indeed many times, I have met you in public discussion in the midst of great 
political campaigns. I remember with gi-atitude the fact to which your spokes- 
man refers, that one of the eai'liest victories for your county was one with 
which I was associated. Ohio is full of glorious memories and the words of your 
spokesman have revived them in my mind. I know of no State in the Union 
that has contributed more to the honor and glory of the Republic than the State 
of Ohio. I know of no county in the State that carries the ashes of more noble 
dead than Sandusky county, whicb you represent. (Applause.) General 
Hayes was my friend — he was my boyhood friend. I met him for the first time 
on the field of battle, when the country was engaged in the mightiest war of 
human history, and no braver man ever led troops than Ruthsrfokd B. Hayes. 
(Continuous cheering. ) He was not only my boyhood friend but he was a con- 
stant friend until the day of his death, and I cherish his memory as an everlasting 
and never to be forgotten one. (Applause.) I recall, too, that other name dis- 
tinguished in the history of your county and State, Gen. Ralph P. Buokland. 
(Applause.) I recall another, that splendid soldier who gave up his early life 
for his country. Gen. James B. MoPhbrson. (Great applause.) All of them are 
glorious names. All of them lived noble lives and left the country examples for 
the young men not only of Sandusky county, but for every county In the State 
to emulate and follow. (Cheers.) But you have come here, my fellow citizens, 
to give me assurances of yoiu* devotion to the Republican cause, and, pleasing 
as it would be to me to indulge further in these reminiscences, I must call 
attention in the briefest manner to some of the subjects which are engaging, at 
this moment, the most earnest attention of the American people. The condition 
of the country is such that every man and woman is thinking about it, and 
wondering how we are to improve it. I read today in the North American 
Review, an article from the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Herbert, of Alabama, 
whom I long knew as a member of the National House of Representatives. He 
has just visited Europe and he describes the business conditions of Germany and 
England and France as possessing a degree of activity and prosperity the like of 
which they never enjoyed before. He closes by saying that the United States 
never was so unprosperous as it is today and then makes the inquiry: 'Why is 
not the United States and its working people and with all its natural resources 
enjoying a share of the prosperity that is enjoyed by England, Germany and 
France?' We all know, my fellow citizens, why we are In the midst of depression 
now, and I think we know why these great nations of the world, our competitors, 
are prosperous. We are doing less of our own work and they ar© doing more of 
it for us. (Great applause.) Everybody admits the condition that Mr. Hbrbert 
describes. I need not stop to discuss with you the cause. Everybody knows 
its source. The question" in every American mind is how to remove the cause 
and how to get back the old prosperity which we had enjoyed fpr more than a 
third of a century. We must have confidence in the first place. How can we get 
that confidence? Can we get it by degrading our money? (Cries of 'No,* 'No.')i 

410 



■Can we get it by threatening the repudiation or partial repudiation of pnnh'c 
and private debts? (Cries of 'No,' 'No.') Can we restore confidence by destroying 
confidence? Can we get it through turmoil and disquietude and public 
disorders? Can we restore confidence by monthly and yearly deficiencies in the 
Public Treasury? (Renewed cries of 'No.') We can only get bade confidence, 
my countrymen, by letting the whole world know that this is an honest Nation 
of seventy millions of people and that we propose to pay our debts in as 
good money as the world knows anything about. (Great cheering.) And then, 
when we have established that, which we will do three weeks from today 
{tremendous cheering) then we propose to resume business at home. (Applause.) 
If we do not take care of our ovni business nobody will take care o£ it for us. (Ap- 
plause.) If we do not use the power of the ballot which we possess, to subserve 
our own best interests, then we do not use the ballot to the best advantage. 
We can not improve the condition of this country by decreasing the value of our 
money and making believe that fifty-two cents worth of silver is a dollar. 
(Applause.) The only way to improve our condition is to increase business. 
Let us do our own manufacturing ; our own mining. Let us preserve our own 
home market — the best market in the world. Let us dedicate ourselves as 
patriots to the promotion of the highest interests of the American people. I 
believe in a tariff (tremendous cheering) — and if we ever needed a tariff in the 
world we need it now. We want to stop borrowing. And we want to stop 
having things charged at our stores. (Laughter and applause.) The only 
reason why we ever have anything charged up against us at the stores is because 
we have no work, (r'ontinued applause.) What we want is a restoration of 
confidence, of credit, the continuance of an unquestioned dollar, and then we want 
to adopt an industrial policy that will raise enough money to pay the expenses 
of this Government every day. (Great applause.) In doing this we will protect 
American industries and defend American labor. I thank you for this call. I 
thank you for the encouragement which you have given to the cause. I thank 
you for this inspiration, for your presence is an inspiration, and I am glad to 
be assured that old Sandusky county will this year record her votes in favor of 
an honest dollar and the prosperity of the country." (Continuous cheers.) 

Mcdonald, Pennsylvania, visitors. 

Between six hundred and seven hundred people from McDonald, Pennsyl- 
vania, called on Major McKinley about noon, Wednesday, October 14th. They 
arrived on a special train of eleven coaches over the Pittsburg and Fort Wayne 
road. The victors represented the oil and coal interests of Washington county, 
principally, but there were also a number of farmers, wool-growers, railroad- 
ers and business men in the party, as well as a number of ladies. The delega- 
tion was led by the McDonald Band and escorted by the McKinley and Hobart 
Club, gaily uniformed. The party was introduced by Charles A. Whiteshot, 
who said : 

"Major McKinley: In behalf of my fellow Eepublicans from McDonald 
and Washington county, I extend to you greeting. We come today not out 
of idle curiosity, but to express our loyalty to the Eepublican platform, its 
principles and to you our next President. (Applause.) . We represent the great 
oil fields— America's gi-eatest industry, and the mining and farming interests of 
Western Pennsylvania. Our people want an opportunity to work, to pay and to 
be paid with honest dollars. (Cheers.) We believe in a free country, but not 
in a free silver country. We want the finances of our country settled. Wo 

411 



want our coal mines open instead of silver mines. We want our gi-een hills 
again covered vrith sheep. You told us in Washington, in 1892, that unions we 
votec? for our Kepublican candidate and protection vre would get seventeen 
cents per pound for our wool. You told us the truth. (Applause.) Oui- woolen 
factories must be protected — our manufactories be protected and opened Our 
people must be given an opportunity to work. But we do not wish, nor is it 
necessary, for us to discuss the issues of the day. We know your views and they 
suit us, and now, Major MoKinlby, permit me to assure you that all of Penns^yl- 
vania is for you." (Applause.) 

riajor ricKinley's Response, 

"My FeliiDW-Citizenb r It gives me great pleasure and it is a gratification to 
me to greet this body of my fellow citizens men, and women, representative of 
every branch of occupation and employment, who bring assurances of good 
will and support. From the number of delegations from your State that have 
visited me already, I am prepared to believe what your spokesman has said, 
that Pennsylvania is really to be on the side of the Republican Party this year. 
(Cries of 'Sure, "Sure, 'and applause and laughter.) lam glad to welcome you as 
valuable allies in the great contest in which we are engaged for public honor, 
for public morals, for good currency, and a protective policy that shall preserve 
the interests of the American people. « (Great applause and 'Hurrahs for Mc- 
KiNLEY.') I congratulate you upon the splendid Government under which you 
live — the freest and the best in the world, for free government is the ideal of 
our civilization. It rests upon the consent of the governed. All people of all 
races and of all nationalities who are citizens of this country equally participate 
in its government, and equally share in its benefits and blessings. AVe have 
been extremely fortunate. We have had no serious causes of complaint in our 
eventful histoi-y in the matter of good government, and by that I accept the 
definition of Jefferson that the 'best government is that which seems to gov- 
ern least,' that gives to the citizen the largest freedom of individual action, the 
largest individual liberty, that places upon him the least restraint and imposes 
the smallest burdens upon his time, his service or his income. (Applause.) 
Contrast our condition with that of the people of other countries and we find 
cause for sincere congratulation. In the one hundred and twenty years of our 
National life we have made steady progress in the march of civilization, and in 
the improvement and development of the great resources which God has given 
us. Nothing has long impeded our march, and nothing can, for the people 
have a way under our form of government of getting rid of policies and of 
parties which are unsuilfr to citizenship and unfavorable to advancement. 
(Great applause and cries of 'You are right.') We can look back over the whole 
stretch of National life with pride and exultation. We have had our ups and 
dov.Tis, our periods of panics and depressions, resulting from one cause or another 
but none of these, nor all of these combined, have thus far stopped the triumph- 
ant march of the American Republic. (Great cheering.) We have a right to 
rejoice over the good fortune which has attended us in the past. The condition 
of our people is better than the condition of the people of any other nation on 
the globe. Wages have been higher; labor has been more dignified, more 
independent, more exalted. Schools of learning have been within easy reach 
and without price to every boy and girl of the Republic,_and the poor boy with 
the rich boy enjoys equal opportunity to draw from these great fountains of 
knowledge. (Applause. ) Under our system the poor boy cah rise, for he is given 

412 



B.n opportunity to rise and reach, as is often the case, the highest place in the 
gift of a self-governed Republic^ (Tremendoxis cheering. ) We can truthfully 
claim, also as Americans, that our National Administrations in all the years of 
the past, whether Federal, Democratic, Whig or Republican, have for the most 
part conducted the Government with credit, honor and efficiency. They will 
contrast favorably with the administrations of any other governments on eanii 
(a voice, 'It beats all of them') and as my friend says, beats all of them. (Laugh- 
ter and great applause.) To our credit be it said, that not one of these 
Administrations, whatever may have been their mistakes and failures (a voice, , 
'We will forgive them') ever suggested, much less attempted, the repudiation, 
directly or indirectly, of a single dollar or cent honestly due to a citizen of this 
or any other country of the globe (renewed cheering) nor counseled the estab- 
lishment of a money for the uses of the people tainted with the slightest dis- 
honor. Shall we now consent, or seem to consent by our votes, to lower that 
high standard or reverse that proud policy? (Loud cries of 'No,' 'No,' 'Never.') 
Sh-all we tolerate now a policy that would cheat any of our creditors, whoever 
or wherever they may be? (Cries of 'No,* 'No.') Shall we tolerate a policy 
that would deprive the brave men living, or their widows, or orphans, of a 
farthing in the pensions that a grateful Government has granted to them? 
(Cries of 'No,' 'No,' 'Never.') How could we recall their patriotic service, or the 
service of Washington, Adams, Jkfpbrson, Jackson, Lincoln and Grant, if -^we 
were to shave one dollar either from the money creditors of the Government or 
those other creditors who were willing to give their lives to save the Union? 
(Tremendous cheering.) Yet, my friends, no other logical construction can be 
placed upon the proposition now before us to reduce and depreciate the value of 
our dollars. There is another thing that can be said of our Government. We 
have always had good money so far as the National authorities were concerned. 
( A voice, 'We always wiU have.') No Congress that I can recall has ever pass- 
ed, and no President has ever signed a bill authorizing what was confessedly a 
dishonest or discredited dollar to be coined or issued by the United States Gov- 
ernment. (Great applause and cries of 'They never will.') Lq time of war we 
have taxed the credit of the Government by issuing its promises to pay money, 
but the Government has been prompt to make these promises good— good as 
gold. Again, we have enjoyed good wages, especially since 1860 ; and, measured 
by the labor standard of other countries, they have been the best. (Applause. ) 
Our contention in this regard is purely domestic. We steadily aim at a more 
exalted and enlightened citizenship. We have encouraged a high standard of 
American manhood and American womanhood, and we do not propose to lower 
that standard now. (Great-applause and cries of 'Never,' 'JS'ever.') Wehavesought 
for the sake of humanity to elevate our citizens and give them work and liv- 
ing wages which would bring to them not only the necessities but the comforts of 
life. We want in this country of a free ballot, an honorable, independent, self- 
respecting, free and conscientious citizenship. •> We sweep away the suggestions 
of birth, class, caste, or condition, and boldly proclaim in the words of Jeffer- 
son, uttered more than one hundred and twenty years ago, that 'All men are 
created equal.' (Applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') Why, unlike any other 
country, we have always held that good wages are only a form of the higliest 
economy, and insisted that by improvement, effectiveness of methods and 
machinery, we could pay more and better wages than were given to the people 
of any other country. (Applause.) This we could and did do under a protec- 
tive tariff and not until 1893, more than thirty -two years after its adoption, did 
we fail to preserve our own high standard of wages, by long odds the best and 

413 



higher than any of the other gi-eat industrial and competing nations. If we ha\ e 
followed false doctrines in the patit few years to our hurt and injury, it is our 
privilege to abandon them — and I believe we wiD. That is the very piu-port of f r. ) 
government. It gives us frequent opportunities for a revision of judgment, ic 
gives us a chance to try policies and if they do not prove beneficial, to reject 
them. We have tried the policy of revenue reform. Are we satisfied 'to con- 
tinue it? (Loud cries of 'No,' 'No,' 'Never.') Rather will we substitute for it a 
tariff policy which will abolish deficiencies in the Treasury. (Cries of 'That's 
the stuff.') That will light up our almost abandoned factories, and call back 
from idleness to work and wages the men of the country, and send cheer and 
comfort and hope to many American homes. (Great applause.) I thank you 
for this call and it will give me pleasui-e to meet and greet each one of you 
personally." (Ti*emendo us cheering.) 

CUYAHOQA COUNTY'S EARLY SETTLERS. 

The Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga county, with friends to the 
number of about three hundred, came to Canton, Wednesday afternoon j October 
14th, with greetings to Major MoKinley, his wife and mother. The party 
arrived in a special train over the Cleveland, Canton and Southern road. Mother 
McBoNLET was at the North Market street home to assist in receiving the visit- 
ors. Father Addison, the veteran journalist of Cleveland, led the delegation, 
and spoke in part as follows : 

"Major MoKinley : It is with much pleasure that I introduce this pai-ty of my 
fellow citizens of Cuyahoga county, mostly of Cleveland, who come to pay their 
respects to you, your wife and your venerable mother, believing that to their in- 
fluence is due much credit for your enviable reputation as a citizen of our gi-eat 
Nation, and to greet you as an affectionate husband and devoted son, which, 
in our opinion,far outweighs that of a politician. (Applause.) We fully believe 
in the familiar sentiment : 

' Honor and fame from no condition rise ; 
Act well your part, there all the honor lies.' 

We are glad to remember that you are one of tfiB many sons of our noble State 
who'have proved its truth." Rev. Cooley, Chaplain of the Early Settlers' Associ- 
ation, also made a short address. When response had been made, the visitors 
arranged themselves on the lawn, the older ones standing on the porch to have 
photographs taken. Major McKinlby Mid his wife and mother were given 
a prominent place in the group. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

" Mb. Addison and Ladies and Gentlemen : I am highly honored at receiv- 
ing this call from the old folks of Cuyahoga county and of the City of Cleveland. 
I gladly welcome the early settlers of Northern Ohio. I welcome you not as 
politicians nor as partisans, but as honored aged men and women who bring nie 
wise counsel, good will and congratulation. I thank you for myself and in 
behaK of my wife and mother, of whom you have so tenderly referred, and to 
whom, more than myself, I am indebted for this generous and agi-eeable call. It 
is a proud pleasure to me to be able to credit to them whatever good things my 
feUow countrymen ascribe to me. (Applause.) To wife and mother, mankind 
is indebted for these high moral qualities— gentleness, truth and virtue, which 

414 



are so indispensable to good character, good citizenship and a noble life. Our 
whole political fabric rests upon the sanctity of the American home where wife 
and mother preside. (Applause.) They teach the boys and girls purity of life 
and thought and aim the way to usefulness and distinction. ^ The world owes 
them more than it can ever repay. The man who loves mother and wife 
requires no bond for his good behavior and can be safely trusted in every rela- 
tion of life. (Great applause.) It is gratifying to me to feel that the men who 
have passed through so many political campaigns, who have fought so many 
political battles, who have reached their three score yeaxs and ten, give us their 
confidence and their support. Not to myself individually, but to the cause and 
the principles which I have been designated to represent in this political contest. 
'Young men for war and old men for counsel,' was wisely spoken but I have 
discovered that in this political contest the old men. get young again> and mani- 
fest quite as much ambition and vigor as the boys themselves. (LaogMer and 
applause.) Among the multitudes who have visited me during the past two 
months, thousands of venerable citizens have stopped to offer their sympathy 
and support in this crucial period of the country's history. 'Age may have 
dimmed the luster of their eyes and slackened their steps' but it has not abated 
their love of country nor their interest in preserving its honor. (Enthusiastic 
applause.) None know better than the men who for forty .years or more have 
watched the growth of the country and have noted the effects of National poli- 
cies upon that advancement, what is best in times like these for the welfare of 
the people and the progress of the Nation. They have seen all policies tried and 
they speak and act from real experience. They are not controlled by ambition, 
oflBce, or tlie hope thereof, nor by theories, but by eternal facts, and their judg- 
ment, in a contest like the present, is of great value, and to none more than the 
young men of the country, who for the first time will exercise the supreme act 
of citizenship. There are those present who will recall the campaign of 'Tippeca- 
noe and Tyler, too.' Some may go back to an earlier time even than that ; but 
all of them will recall the days of the old Whig Party, when Adams, Clay and 
Webster and the elder Harrison were the idols of their party and the leaders 
of its thought, and when Van Buren and Weight, Jaokson and Benton were 
the conspicuous and able champions of the principles of the Democratic Party. 
You have doubtlessly participated in many Presidential elections, and can wit- 
ness this year that earnest enthusiasm which you exhibited years ago in the 
'40's and the '50's, and in that mighty crisis of 1860. Do not forget that the son 
is like the father, and be charitable to him if he gets too enthusiastic and partic- 
ipates in more parades, processions and meetings than you would have him do. 
(Laughter and applause.) I wish for you all, lengthened years and increased 
blessings. Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, returning from a visit to Europe, 
last Saturdy, was a guest at the Massachusetts Club, in the City of Boston. 
He was given a warm, generous and royal welcome, such as he deserved. The 
Senator has passed the milestone that markedjhis seventieth year. He said, in 
reply to the greeting, among other felicitous things: 'To an old man, who 
counts his three score years and ten, the chief satisfaction of life is not wealtli, 
or power, or fame of office. It is friendship.' An English poet and essayist, 
George Crowley, wrote with his own hand at the age of eighty an epitaph, 
which can be found in the church at St. Stephens, Walbrook, London, what, 
Senator Hoar said, it seemc--' to him, summed up better than could be found 
anywhere else the blessings which this life has to confer. This was the epitaph : 
'Thankful to Almighty God for the past blessings of health, life prolonged to 
old age, a competence, a not inactive mind, a loved and loving wife, kind friends 

415 



and excellent children' — I trust these blessings have all been vouchsafed (o you, 
early settlers of Cuyahoga county, and may it be said of all of you that : 
'With weary baud, yet steadfast will 

In old age, as in youth, 
The Master found them sowing still 
The good seed of His truth.' 

I thank you for this call and it will give me great pleasure to m':^et and 
gi*eet each one of you personally." (Applause.) 

CLEVELAND STREET CAR MEN. 

Employes of the Cleveland City Street Eailway Company to the number of 
850 came to Canton on the afternoon of ()ctober 14th, to pay their recited:- to 
Major McKiNLEY. They made a particularly good appearance, the whole party 
being prettily uniformed and unusually well drilled. They greeted Major 
McKiNLEY with a volley of cheers and shouts when he appeared upon the porch 
to address them and they applauded his address most heartily. The discipline 
of the club was generally commented upon. At no time during the reception 
did they break the lines in which they marched, and when they filed across the 
porch to shake hands the proceeding was so orderly and decorous as to be gener- 
ally remarked. There was no speech making on behalf of the party. Thomas 
Martin, one of the employes simply annoujiced the men as employes of the 
Cleveland City Railway Company, and Major McKinley addressed them. 

Major flcKinley's Address. 

"My Fellow Citizens : I can not conceal my pleasure in meeting at niy 
home the employes of the Cleveland Street Railway Company who do me the 
honor of a visit. You are here because you are interested in the country in 
which you live and the country which you love. (Applause.) You are here be- 
cause the contest that is now less than three weeks away from Its conclusion 
will settle, I trust for all time, a number of important and fundamental ques- 
tions. I take it that you are interested in these questions being settled on the 
side of right and justice to the honor and glory of the Republic. One of the things 
that we will settle is, that this is a Government under law and by law. (Great- 
applause.) That this is a Government of honor and integrity ; that- it would 
spurn to repudiate any of its obligations, public or private ; or to establish a 
currency that was not good and sound in all commercial transactions, in evei'y 
part of the world. Then we will settle another thing this year — and that is 
whether we are to continue the policy of tariff reform, or free trade, in the 
United States, or whether we will discontinue it. We have had nearly four 
years of experience under it and we know something of its results. We have 
had nearly four years of unprecedented business depression and business dis- 
order, and the hardest times within the recollection of the men who stand about 
me today. Now! believe that policy ought to be reversed. I think we ought to go 
back to the protective policy (great applause) under which for a third of a cen- 
tury our National life, aye, for much longer than a third of a century, for com- 
mencing with the beginning of the Government, we were living under that 
policy, and when we have lived under it the people have always been prosjier- 
ous and the homes of the American citizens happy; and the Treasury of the 
United States instead of being deficient, had a surplus, and had plenty of money 
to meet all of its daily expenses. (Cries of 'You are right' and applause.) You 
are interested in the prosperity of the country. You can not be protected bj 

416 



tariff personally and directly, but you get your protection in the general pros- 
perity of the country. (Applause.) The more business that is dooe in the city 
of Cleveland, in the mills, the shops, the factories and the stores, and on the 
lake, the more business you people have to do ; and the more business railroads 
have to do, the more employes they must have, and the more business they do 
the better the wages will be. (Applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and 'You are 
right.') You have it in your power this year by your ballots to help restore 
that policy. I am glad to meet and greet you here today, I am glad to know 
that this large body of street railroad employes are enrolled in the ranks of 
the Republican Party for a sound Government, a sound dollar and a sound 
protective tariff. I thank you and bid you good afternoon." (Three rousing 
cheers were given for the 'Next President of the United States.') 
\ 

A CUriBERLAND, MARYLAND, DELEGATION. 

A delegation from Cumberland, Maryland, arrived Wednesday, October 14th, 
The party of about two hundred and fifty men, left home in the morning and 
traveled just twelve hours to reach the home of the Republican standard bear- 
er to extend tlieir greeting and assurances of support. They were headed by 
the Cumberhind Concert Band, a most excellent organization, and its sweet 
strains attracted a large crowd tp tlie McKinley home. The delegation was in- 
troduced by Hon. George Snyder, Chairman of the Allegheny County Republican 
Executive Committe, who said: 

'•'Major McKinley: The duty devolves upon me to present these citizens 
of Allegheny county, Maryland. In doing so I wish to say that old rock- 
ribbed and coal-seamed Allegheny is the banner Republican county of Mary- 
land. (Applause.) When Maryland stood staunch to the Democratic Party, 
it was for years that Allegheny stood peerless for Republican principles, 
and.- so she stands today. Our delegation is composed of men from all the 
walks of life. All alike are for you for President of the United States ; all are 
for sound money, protection and reciprocity. We turn to you, whom we look 
upon as the great apostle of protection, in this hour of the Nation's need, to 
guide us. To whom shall we look to lead to victory, if not to him who has 
staunchly and fearlessly stood by us in the past? (Applause.) Who so well 
fenows the needs of our citizens, in protecting their labor, as you? Y'"ou, sir, are 
not unknown in old Allegheny county. During our late Civil War, as a soldier 
fighting for the maintenance of this great Republic, you were stationed for a 
time in our principal city, Cumberland. Many of our citizens remember you 
as a brave oflRcer in the Union Ai'my and those same people intend to further rs- 
niember you by casting their ballots for you. I speak for this entire delega- 
tion and say to you that we greet you and bid you godspeed in your contest for 
the noble and just principles enunciated in the Republican Platform promul- 
gated at St. Louis. We assure you not only a rousing Republican majority in 
onr county, but the electoral vote of the State of Maryland. (Applause.) It is 
BO idle boast that we make, for we feel assured that when the darkness steals 
over the earth on the evening of November third, next, 'Maryland, My Mary- 
land' will have come out of the wilderness into the land of promise, and, as pre- 
dicted a year ago, is in line in.l896. She has raised high above her mountain tops 
a banner on one side inscribed with the names of McKinley and Hob.\rt and on 
the other 'Sound Money, Protection to American Industries and Reciprocity.' " 
JTremendous cheering.) 

i 417 . i 



On behalf of the Democratic glassworkers of Cumberland and as a token of 
their esteem and confidence, the spokesman for the party presente(^ Major 
McKiNLEY a set of handsomely engraved water glasses. The visitors remained 
in the city till midnight. The band rendered a concert from the Hurford 
House balcony, which was listened to and most heartily enjoyed by a large 
crowd of Canton people. The delegation was a representive one, and made a 
good impression. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Snyder and My Fellow Citizens: I welcome to my State, city and 
home, the people of Allegheny county, Maryland, and the City of Cumberland. 
I recall with pleasant recollections that old city. I spent a portion of my time 
during the late Civil War there, and recall only pleasurable scenes, memorios 
and friendships. Some of the relations which I then formed have continued un- 
interruptedly until now, so that I do not feel that I am wholly a stranger 
either to your city or your people. It is a long time, too, eighteen years, sinca 
I addressed a Republican meeting in the City of Cumberland. (Applause.) 
I discovered then that you were unfaltering in your devotion to Republican 
princii^les and in your loyalty to the Republican Party. I congratulate you upon 
the splendid victory achieved in your State last year, I congi'atulate the city 
of Cumberland upon being the residence of your distinguished Governor, 
Hon. Lloyd Lowndes, (cheers) and of your distinguished United States 
Senator Hon. George L. Wellington. (Renewed cheers.) When I spoke to 
you in 1878, passion and hate characterized the political contest. Fortunately 
the bitterness which then prevailed has disappeared, and those who were 
then divided are now together fighting the battle of honest money and for 
public honor. You come from a county distinguished for its rich coal- 
mining, iron, steel, glass and cement products. Cumberland is a railroad 
center, and a city that ought to enjoy great material prosperity. Your State 
has wrested from the Democratic Party its old time majority and r?gi3-- 
tered a splendid Republican victory. I give you hospitable greeting. Let their 
be a repetition this year of the great victory so decisively and honorably won 
last year. (Applause.) Give us, men of Allegheny county, the same cause for 
congratulation, and not only will Maryland have reason to rejoice, but all the 
States will immediately, or eventually, approve your verdict. (A voice, 'We 
will do it. Major,' and great applause.) This is a year when Republican victo- 
ries will not be considered mere partisan triumphs, but successes for posterity 
and the whole country— not one State but every State will enjoy their fruits. 
The prosperity of the United States for a long time to come, and certainly its 
honor, is involved in the pending campaign. Eliminating minor issues, it is a 
contest for the preservation of law and order and the independence, dignity and 
integrity of the Federal Judiciary. What will the answer of Maryland be to that 
open challenge? (Cries of 'Honest money' and 'Law and order.') It is for the 
continuance of honest money— gold, silver and paper — all equal to the best, and 
everywhere as good as the best, and restoration of the protective tariff system 
without which we can not hope to have either permanent prosperity among our 
people, or sufficient revenue to support the Government. Surely the voice of 
Maryland will not be heard in the negative upon any one of these vital propo- 
sitions. A State of her proud record in the Revolutionary War. and in the 
second war with England, the State of Carroll, and Pinckney, of Wirt and 
Francis Scott Key will surely not falter now in any campaign affecting our 
National honor. (Cries of 'No,' 'Ko.') A State with such vast commercial 

418 



and material interests, whose prosperity and development are so entirely 
dependent upon her great commerce, both maritime and inland, the first to 
develop both a great coastwise and railroad ,trade ; a State with immense bank- 
ing capital, mighty labor interests, great schools and universities and advanced 
civilization, will surely never cast discredit upon the good name of the country 
or asperse the honor and glory of the Kepublic. A State of such great manu- 
facturing and agricultural interests can not afford to longer continue a tariff 
policy that impoverishes her people and retards her growth. (Applause.) You 
know, my fellow citizens, what trouble you have had in the last three years 
and a half ; you know, too, what is the matter, and what is the cause of that 
trouble. You know it is because you have not had steady work at good wages. 
(Cries of 'That's right' and applause.; Now ,what we want to do in this country 
is to restore a policy that will encourage American development, American 
manufacturing, and give work to American workingmen. (Cheers.) This is the 
policy of the Eepublican Party, and it has been its uninterrupted policy since 
1861. Under this policy, as every workingman in my presence well knows, we 
enjoyed a higher prosperity than we ever enjoyed before or since. Now, having 
restored that policy, which can only be done by your votes, in connection with 
tlie votes of your fellow countrymen everywhere, let it be recorded by the same 
votes on the third day of November, that the people of this country are in favor 
of honest dollars with v.hich to measure our exchanges, and not shifting dollars, 
to be ascertained by consulting the market reports published in the daily news- 
papers of the country. (Great applause.) When you have performed a good, 
honest day's work, you want to be paid in good, honest dollars. (Cheering and 
cries of 'That's right;') You want to be paid in staying dollars that are good,, 
not only when you receive them, but good for all the time (applause and cries of 
•That's what we want') because they rest upon unextinguishablo and inherent 
value, recognized the world over. I thank you, my fellow citizens, for having 
journeyed so far to give me your assurances of support, your messages of good 
will and your congratulations. I hiope you will have a pleasant stay in our 
city. I regret that you did not reach us earlier, and I wish you a safe 
return home to your families and your community. Good night." (Tremendous 
cheering.) » 

FROM ERIE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 

Erie County and Corry,Pennsylvania, contributed the first callers, on Thurs- 
day, October loth. The one body" was made up of two train loads from the 
northern and southern sections of that county. In the Erie party there were 
five hundred people, while the Corry crowd numbered about six hundred more 
Addresses were made by J. W. Sell for the Erie people and S. A. Smith for the 
Corry 'delegation. Several bands of music accompanied the visitors and selec- 
tions were rendered along the line of march and also at the residence of Major 

McKlNLEY. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen and My Fellow Citizens: I bid you warm wel- 
come. You are here today from no mere idle curiosity, but because each of you 
believes you have something at stake in the National contest which is to be set- 
tled two weeks from next Tuesday. You are here because you love your homes, 
families and country ; and because you would have the expression given on the 
third day of November of your highest hopes, your best thoughts, and your 

419 



I 



loftiest aspirations for this gi-eat free Republic. (Great applause and 'Hurrahg 
for McKiNLEY.') You all understand that this Government is conducted by its 
Legislative and Executive departments. If the people want to put into public 
administration any lavsr or any settled policy, they must have both the Executive 
office and the Oongi-ess of the United States. (A voice, 'Down with Sibley,' fol- 
followed by laughter and applause.) You can not embody your purposes into 
law by having only the one or the other— you must have both ; and I trust that 
the. people of Pennsylvania and the people of all the States of the Union 
will see to it that the National House and the Senate of the United States 
are not neglected at the polls next November. (Cries of 'That's right ' 
and applause.) I recall with peculiar pleasure the visit I made to 
Erie county just about this time two years ago, I remember the early 
call I made upon you in the city of Erie. (A voice, 'Yes, and we yelled to 
beat Job,' and applause and laughter.) I remember, too, with great satisfac- 
tion, that the Erie district sent to the Congi-ess of the United States a Republi- 
can to represent it in that great branch of the National Legislature. (Three 
cheers and a voice, 'We will send another one, too.') We were then discussing, 
as we are discussing now, sound money and a protective tariff. (Great applause.) 
Have the people of Erie ounty changed their minds? (Cries of 'Not a bit of 
it,' and 'No,' sir,' 'Nit.') Are they still in favor of an honest dollar with which to 
measure the people's exchanges? (A voice, 'You bet your life on that,' and ap- 
plause and laughter.) And a protective tariil that is ever mindful of the interests 
and well-being of the American people? (Applause.) In this contest, astlien, 
we have the aid and assistance of thousands and tens of thousands of Democrats in 
every part of the country, who think more of the honor of the Government than 
they do of their old political associations. We bid them welcome as allies in 
this great conflict for the maintenance of the public honor. Some people say 
we have not enough money. The trouble is, my fellow citizens, we have not 
enough confidence to put in circulation the money we now have. (Cries of 
'That's right,' and gi-eat cheering.) We have just as much money as we ever 
haxi in all our history, and it is as good as it ever was, but those who have it are 
distrustful of the future and they won't invest it in industries and enterprises 
that give employment to labor. Now, what we want to do first of all is to re^ 
store public and private confidence ; let the whole world know this year that 
this Nation proposes to keep all its contracts inviolable, and continue a currency 
that is worth a hundred cents on the dollar every day and everywhere. (Vocif- 
erous cheering and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') I read this morning a remarkable 
statement written by Macaulay in his 'History of England,' which presents in 
the most striking and impressive manner the'evil of a debased and fluctuating 
currency. He says, speaking of a period in the history of England: 'When the 
great instrument of exchange, which was money, became thoroughly deranged, 
all trades, all industry, was smitten as with a palsy. The evil was felt daily and 
hourly in almost every place and by almost every class, in the daii-y and on the 
threshing floor, by the anvil and at the loom, on the billows of the ocean and 
in the depths of the mines. Nothing could be purchased without a dispute. 
Over every counter there was wrangling from morning to night. The workman 
and his employer had a quarrel as regular as the Saturday came around. On a 
Fair day or Market day, the'clamors, the reproaches, the taunts, the curses, 
were incessant, and it was well if no booth was overturned and no head broken. 
No merchant would contract to deliver goods without some stipulation about 
the quality of the coin in which he was to be paid. Even men of business were 
often, bewildered by the confusion into wliich all pecuniary transactions were 

420 



thrown. The simple and careless were pillaged without mercy by extortionists 
whose demands gi-ew even more rapidly than the money shrank. The price of 
the necessaries of life, of shoes, of oat-meal, rose fast. The laborer found that 
the bit of metal which, when he received it, was called a shilling, would hardly, 
when he wanted to purchase a loaf of rye bread, go as far as a sixpence. Where 
artisans of more than usual intelligence were collected in great numbers, as in 
the dockyards at Chatham, they were able to make complaints heard, and to 
obtain redress. But the ignorant and helpless peasants were cruelly gi-ound 
between one class, which would give money only by tale and another which 
would take it only by weight.' They counted the money out to the laborer .who 
could only get rid of it by weight. Do you want a money of that sort in the 
United States, my fellow citizens, (loud cries of 'No, 'No, 'Never') that is one 
thing in name and another in value, a thing which you take for a dollar and 
which is taken from you at whatever its market value may be in the commercial 
centers of the world? No, I answer, forever no I If there is any one thing that 
should be honest it is the money that represents the wealth and labor of the 
American Nation. (Continuous cheering and cries of 'Right,' 'Eight.') Then, 
my fellow citizens, we want an opportunity to earn that money ; and the way to 
do that is not to do our work in Europe, but to do it at home. (Cries of 'That's 
the stuff,' and 'That's right,' and great applause.) The way to do that is to re- 
store the protective policy (a voice, 'Now you'r shouting,' and laughter and 
applause) that will put a tariff high enough upon foreign competing goods 
to enable us to do all our own manufacturing and preserve our home 
market for our own American people. This is the policy of the Republican 
Party ; it is the dictate of an enlightened patriotism ; it looks to the preserva- 
tion of the most valued interests of the American people. I thank you for this 
call. I bid you welcome to ray city and wish to all of you a safe return to your 
homes." (Three enthusiastic cheers were then given for McKinley.) 

VISITORS FROn WESTERN NEW YORK. 

'^The third delegation that came to Canton, on Thursday, October 15th, was 
from Western New York. The party started from Dunkirk, and numbered 
about six hundred people. The introductory address was made by Congressman 
W. B. Hooker, of Fredonia. The delegation consisted mainly of residents of 
northern part of Chautauqua county and included professional men, farmers, 
dairymen and grape growers. 

riajor lAcKinlej/'s Response. 

" Congressman Hooker AND My Fellow Citizens : Your coming is .most 
welcome and encouraging. You bring sunshine and good cheer, and promises 
of an unprecedented Republican majority this year in the great Empire State. 
I recall as I speak to you, my visit to Dunkirk in October, 1894. You were then 
in the midst of a great State and National contest. I remember the fervor of 
your welcome and even then noted tones in yom: voices betokening coming vic- 
tory. At that time you were called upon to elect a full State ticket ; to choose 
a member of Congress, and determine whether or not the new Constitution, 
which had been foi-mally f^ubmitted to the voters, should go into effect. It was 
a campaign of vital importance both to State and Nation. As one of your older 
citizens at the time remarked to me: 'Republican success this year is not for 
one cr.mpaign or ?, single year, but it may involve our distant posterity.' The 

j 421 



result of that election was evidently satisfactory. That grand old citizen and 
veteran Republican, Levi P. Mortox, (great cheering) was elected Governor of 
Xew York by a phenomenal majority and with him a full Republican Statt.- ticket 
— thfe first for a long term of years ; and the new Constitution was ratified and 
has since gone into effect. Your Congressman, Mr. Hooker, was re-elected by 
an increased majority. (Great applause.) The great Empire State is now 
respected everywhere for her free, independent and powerful voice in the coun- 
sels of the Nation. She stands proudly erect this year for country, for patriot- 
ism and National honor. (Great applause.) She refuses to wear a party yoke 
which would lead to National dishonor or repudiation. The glorious old flag is 
lier only banner. She refuses to march under any other, and I am told that 
irom the Battery to Forty-second street, in the greatest city of the country, 
'Old Glory' waves her spotless stripes and stainless stars upon every block and 
square, appealing for National honor and exaltation of the American name. 
(Great cheering and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') It is a sight which inspires the 
young and makes the old young again. Let it wave, holy banner of the free! 
(Applause.) It was never stained in defeat and it never will be. (Great 
cheering.) It was never lowered in dishonor and neverwillbe. (Renewed cheer- 
ing.) And the Government, whose security and honor is enshrined upon every 
fold and emblazoned upon every star, will not be lowered or dishonered. (Con- 
tinued cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') In the election of 1894, 
Chautauqua county and Dunkirk bore an honorable pa t Both were on the 
right side, both for honest money then, as always in the past, and as they will 
ever be in the future — for that is a distinct provision of the Republican code of 
principles and the unquestioned judgment of the citizens of the great State of 
New York without regard to party. (Applause and cries of 'Good,* 'Good.') 
Both were for protection and reciprocity. (Cheers. ) Both were for the enforce- 
ment of law and order. (Renewed cheering.) Both favored the preservation 
and sanctity of our courts, and were emphatically opposed — or would have beeo 
liad they imagined such a thing possible — to an attack upon those revered tri- 
bunals of justice which have always been our great anchors of safety and true 
safeguards of constitutional liberty— the Federal Courts of the United States. 
(Tremendous cheering and cries of 'McKinley's aU right.) Dunkirk, I recall, 
is a town noted for the manufacture of locomotive engines. Imagine, if you 
can, the construction of an engine without a safety-valve (great laughter and 
applause) and yet there are some political engineers in this country who seek 
to run the Republic — the greatest of all engines for human progress — without a 
safety-valve (renewed laugh' er and applause) without brakes (tremendous 
cheering) or without other restraint than their own misguided wills. (Contin- 
ued cheering and cries of 'Correct,' 'Correct.') Some of them would run the 
engine one way (great laughter) and some would run it another. (Renewed 
laughter and applause.) They are divided and inharmonious in the way to run 
it. (Cries of 'That's right.') They have a surplus of engineers (great laugh- 
ter) each of whom has been educated in a different school and none in the 
school of experience. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'What's the matter 
with ]\IcKiNi.EY?') They differ upon very many proi)ositions, but apparently 
are united in opposition to the maintenance of a sound currency and of pre- 
serving inviolable the obligations of the Government. Tliey seem to unite in 
favoring a reduction of one-half of the savings and the salaries and the wages of 
the country, for they have exjn-essly declared in favor of afinancial policy which 
would have just that result. There is one thing the people of this country will 
not submit to — that the savings of the poor shall be squandered and wasted bj 

422 



a depreciation of the hard earned money which they have laid aside as the results 
of their thrift and economy. (Great applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') Can 
the people of Dunkirk and Chautauqua county for one instant favor such a 
policy ? (Loud cries of 'No,' 'Never.') I am glad to know that you do not. Let 
me tell you w^hat I think is a better, a safer and more honorable policy. Let us 
restore the protective tariff system and pay as we go. (Enthusiastic cheering 
and 'Hurrahs for McKint.ey.') Put our laboring people at work and restore 
business confidence from one end of the country to the other. (Great applause 
and cries of 'That's the stuff.') I am a protectionist (cries of 'That's right, so 
are we') because I believe the protective system is best adapted to ovir condi- 
tions and citizenship. (Cries of 'Right you are.') It does everything that a 
revenue tariff does and vastly more. It supplies needed revenue. (Great ap- 
plause.) A revenue tariff can do no more, and the present tariff has not done 
that much. (Great applause.) It accomplishes this end with equal, if not 
gi-eater certainty than a revenue tariff, and while doing that it wisely discrimi 
nates in favor of American interests, and is ever mindful of the American people. 
(Cheers and cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') It protects our ow^n products against 
those of the alien and the stranger, while the domestic consumer is secured 
reasonable prices through domestic competition. It diversifies the occupations 
and multiplies the opportunities cf our people ; secures an unrivalled home mar- 
ket for agriculture and unequalled wages for labor. It opposes trusts and prohib- 
its combinations controlling the markets and prices to the injury of the people ; 
for it is opposed to free trade, which has been the parent of trusts, and insists that 
competition with the Old World shall be on equal conditions, made so by the tariff. 
(Applause.) If Europe will pay her labor as we pay ours, we will meet her in 
the neutral markets and contend without fear for supremacy. (Great applause ) 
Let her lift her conditions up. We will not pull ours down. (Great cheering 
and cries of 'No,' 'Never.') Protection encourages skill and genius to the 
highest activity, and under its operations we have reached the foremost rank in 
mechanism and invention, and the widest individual and National prosperity. 
Protection favors the United States (great applause and cries of 'That's the 
stuff') and the flag of the United States. (Renewed applause.) It favors the 
people of the United States (cheers) and is the true friend of every American 
girl and boy struggling upward. (Great applause.) It builds up ; it never tears 
dow-n. (Cries of "That's right.' ) It opens but never closes American workshops. 
This is what we want in this distressed country today. (Cries of 'That's what 
we want.') This is what will diminish idleness, want and misery and stop 
deficient revenues. (Applause.) If you favor the restoration of prosperity, the 
honest payment of our debts, the fulfillment of our obligations, and the contin- 
uance of our high rank and importance among the great nations of the world, 
men of New York, I bid you, two weeks from next Tuesday, to cast your votes 
that way. (Great cheering and cries of 'That's what we'll do.') I thank you for 
this call and bid you good afternoon." (Great applause.) 

CANTON'5 VISIT TO HAJOR HcKINLEY. 

Delegation after delegation had previously called upon Major McKinley, but 
the visit of none apparently was more gratifying to him than the delegation of his 
fellow townsmen, on tlip afternoon of Thursday, October 15th. It was Canton's 
day. And the workingni -n of the city did well in the demonstration which was so 
hurriedly planned and exe» 'ted. There was no vestige of classes in the parade. 
From miUs and shops there was a spontaneous outpouring of men direct from their 

423 



implements of toil . With faces begrimed with the sweat of honest work and with 
baskets and pails in their hands, they took their places in the line of march and 
moved witli the mighty column to the home of their choice for President, the 
man whom they had known and loved for many years. It was the most sur- 
prising event of the campaign. They came in thousands from the one hundred 
and twenty-five factories, large and small, which in prosperous times employed 
from twenty to twenty-five hundred people each. They came, many of them, 
with wife and children and filled broad North Market street, a half mile or 
more, from the Public Square to Louis Avenue. They crowded over tlie fences 
from the streets and sidewalks, on the dooryards and lawns of other houses as 
far as the eye could reach. Girl and boy operatives joined the crowd until it 
seemed as if half the population of the city was trying to get within hearing 
distance. They carried banners inscribed, "Open the Mills," "Our Money is 
Good Enough, What we Want is Work," ""We want McKinley, Protection and 
Work," There was an unusual tremor in Major McKinley's voice when he 
arose to respond to the sentiments of the venerable spokesmen from local 
factories w-ho addressed him, and many a gi-ay-baired man, with bent form and 
hardened hand, but tender heart, presented a face with tear-glistened eyes as 
he greeted Major McKinley when the speech making was over. It was an un- 
organized delegation. The factories in operation passed the word around, on 
Thursday morning, that those of their employes who wished to call could do so 
in the afternoon after four o'clock. There were no uniforms and but fewattempts 
at badges. Everything was hurriedly improvised. No meeting affected ]\[ajor 
McKixley so much as this tribute of the workingmen of his home city, with the 
acres of humanity that moved to his house with their bared heads, cheering 
voices, fluttering handkerchiefs and waving hats. It was very evidently a sur- 
prise in extent and enthusiasm. Before the speaking began and while the peo- 
ple were trying to get within hearing distance, several selections w^ere rendered 
by Thayer's Band and the Jilolian Quartette. All the numbers were heartily 
applauded. The first speaker was Edward Jones, a factory watchman. He said : 
"Major McKinley, Mrs. McKinley and Ladies and Gentlemen: I think if 
there ever was a proud moment or a proud feeling within this bosom of mine it 
is at this present time. When I see so many of my fellow workingmen, all of 
them on the right side this year, it seems to cheer me and I know it cheers all 
of us. I feel proud for more things than one, I feel proud that 
we have with us in the city of Canton the next President of the United 
States of America. (Tremendous applause.) Sixteen years ago I came to 
Canton. In October of that year I heard the first political speech that I 
ever heard in this country. It w^as the speech of the man who is to be 
the President of this glorious Republic, and I feel proud because I have followed 
him and have voted with him ever since. Fellow workingmen, if you liave ever liad 
enough of anything, I believe you have had enough of the Democratic Party. 
(Laughter and applause and cries of 'You bet.') I have had all that I want, 
anyway. (Laughter.) I ask you, fellow workingmen, whether the promises 
which were given four years ago have been fulfilled? (Cries of 'No,' 'No,' and 
applause.) No, my fellow workingmen, they have not. I have addressed many 
meetings of w^orkingmen. I addressed one with over 47,000 in line one day. It 
was in South Yorkshire, in the miners' district. I had the pleasure of calling 
upon one of the speakers, a real big, live Lord, who was high up in the aristoc- 
racy of England. But there's a man now that gives me a tliousand times more 
pleasure "to call upon than it did in calling on that Lord or all the Lords in 
England put together. (Tremendous laughter and great applause.) Do we 

424 



want better times, my fellow workingmen ? (Vociferous shouts of 'Yes,' 'Yes,'" 
'We do.') I knew you would say 'Yes.' (Laughter and applause.) And I say 'Yes, 
we want better times,' and how are we to get them ? (Cries of 'Vote for Mc- 
KixLEY,') I say the only way to get better times is to vote for McKinley, pro- 
tection and sound money, and then we shall be in better condition this time 
next year. (Tremendous applause.) I do not want to occupy your time. There 
is another speaker before Major McKtnley speaks to you, Mr. John Krause, of 
the Aultman Company, a workingman who will introduce Mr. McKinley— 
Governor McKinley— I mean our next President. (Great laughter and ap- 
plause.) There is one factory that is not able to be represented here today on 
account of working full time and the men could not even get off to come to this 
grand meeting, but I can say to Major McKinley, or Governor McKinley, or 
our next President — they told me to tell him, both the employers and the em- 
ployes — if they were not here at this meeting, their hearts were here,- and that 
is everything. (Great applause.) I now have the pleasure of introducing to 
you Mr. John Krause, of the Aultman factory." (Applause.) 

Mr. Krause spoke as follows: 

"Honorable Mr. McKinley, and Esteemed Friend: Since you have-been 
chosen as standard bearer of the great Eepublican Party, you have had many 
visitors here from all over the land. There have been delegations of bankers, 
of manufacturers and merchants ; delegations of ministers of the gospel ; rail- 
road men and street-carmen ; workers in steel, in iron and in tin; workers in 
the potteries ; farmers and miners ; veterans of the Confederate army, also of the 
Union army ; old men and young men, women and first voters ; but this afternoon 
you have before you the laboring men of Canton, who have come here without 
uniforms and without badges. We come before you with hearts that beat in 
unison and extend to you our friendship. We are here to say to you that the 
laboring men of Canton and of America will support you at the next election. 
(Applause. ) They look upon you as the champion and chief friend of the laboring 
men. They look upon you as a Joshua to lead them from the wilderness, and the 
land of idleness into the land of prosperity and employment. We feel and hope 
and know that you will be the next Executive Officer of this great Nation. 
We feel that you should be the next President of these United States, and liope 
that the Lord of Hosts that foresees the destinies of Nations will keep you and 
bless you." (Great applause.) 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : I have witnessed in front of this porch many scenes 
which have touched my heart, but none which have more deply moved me than 
this gathering of the workingmen of Canton. Fringed about this assemblage 
are the wives and the little ones whom you love so much and for whom you 
want an opportunity to labor. I bid you all warm, hearty and sincere welcome. 
I have known most of you almost a lifetime. One of the spokesmen, the h.^t 
one, was one of the earliest of my friends when I came to the city of Canton, 
and the other I have known for fifteen or sixteen years ; while in this audience 
there are thousands of well known and familiar faces to me. I greet you all as 
my friends. I have been with you in every undertaking to build up our splendid 
little city, to bring enterprise, thrift and employment to our people, and in all 
the years of the past there has not been a moment that I have not felt, whether 
1 had their supporr or not, that I had the respect and confidence of the working- 
men of Canton. (Great cheering.) I have been speaking to you on political 

425 



questions for twenty-nine years. My first discussion of that character was in 
1867; since that time annually, I have been honored in having your attention 
and hearing on the evening before election, whether State or ^'ational. In that 
period many important questions were discussed and some of them have been 
permanently settled, and you helped to settle them. Universal suffrage, the 
honest payment of the public debt, the resumption of specie payments, the res- 
toration of the Union upon a solid and enduring basis, the inviolability of tlie 
credit and obligations of the Government, all have been passed upon affirmatively 
and have been accepted and acquiesced in by every part of our common country. 
Some of these questions which we supposed were settled, and forever settled 
are re-opened in this campaign. The currency which, since 1879, has been on a 
safe and sound basis, is now assailed by our political adversaries. It involves 
the old question of the honest payment of the public debt and the pensions to our 
soldiers, and of all public obligations which the people long ago determined on 
the side of good faith, good morals and common honesty. (Great applause.) 
But with that settlement some people are not satisfied. So we are called u[)on 
again this year to pass upon this question. There is still another — tbe question of 
protection against free trade, or tariff reform. (Vociferous cheering.) In 1892, 
free trade as against protection was the paramount issue of the campaign and 
■free trade triumphed before the great tribunal of the American people. This 
year we bring the question to you again. We ask you to review it, and to 
express your reconsidered, better and more matured judgment upon that 
issue, after three years of dreadful experience. I spoke in the city of Canton 
— and many of you doubtless were present — on Monday evening, November 8> 
1892, and in that speech I appealed to my fellow citizens at home, as 1 had 
appealed to those elsewhere, not to overturn the protective policy whicli iiad 
brought us such universal prosperity, and which at that very momen/ was 
spreading its blessings and benefits throughout the entire country and in every 
industrial center. Protection against free trade was the leading issue then, and 
in the course of that speech I said what was true then and what is true now. 
This is what I said four years ago : 'But again the Democrats say that if we 
have free trade we could buy cheaper than we do at present. Yes, we might 
while the struggle between American and foreign manufactories was going on 
but when the former are wiped out, the price would go up to whatever figure 
might be dictated by the foreign manufacturer, and in the meantime labor will 
be scantily employed and at reduced wages. Free trade cheapens the article 
by cheapening the artisan ; protection reduces the price of a product by giving 
the artisan just reward for his labor and receiving its reward in his higher skill 
and industry. (Great applause.) Free trade cheapens the product by cheapen- 
ing the producer ; protection cheapens the product through the skill, the genius 
and the industry of the producer. (Loud applause.) But, my countrymen, 
nothing is cheap at any price which comes frorfl abroad that entails idleness 
upon the American j)eople. (Applause.) The maxim of free trade is buy 
where you can buy the cheapest. I will give you a maxim worth ten thousand 
times more than that: Buy where you can pay the easiest.' (Tremendous 
cheering and cries of 'That's the stuff.') Buy where labor receives its highest 
reward, and that is in the United States of America — or was — (a voice 'You bet 
your life,' and great laughter and applause) four years ago. During the years of 
protection every manufactured product had been cheapened, but in that pro- 
cess, thank God, men, living men had never been cheapened. (Continuous 
cheering.) While the products of the country had gone dowTi in price, labor up 
to 1892 had more than held its own, and a workingman at that time was receiving 

426 



sixty per cent more for liis labor than he received in 1860. (Continuous ap- 
plause.) All that we have done by protection has been to take care of our own 
households and the great iSTational family. That's wliat we propose to do by 
our ballots on the third of November. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 
'That's what we'll do, Major.') I said another thing then : 'If by your ballots 
you adopt this free trade policy, while things may be cheaper in the United 
States, you will have less labor and less wages with which to buy them.' Was I 
right, men of Canton? (Tremendous shouts and cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') Those 
were the words spoken to you four years ago and were my best and most ma- 
ture convictions. I do not believe that in my relations with you, with many of 
you for moi-e than a quarter of a century, I have ever undertaken to deceive, 
mislead or misguide you. (Vociferous cheering and cries of 'You never have,' 
■'Never.') My opinions may have been wrong, but they were honest opinions 
and none were more honest than those I expressed to you in 1892. How far 
they were truly and worthily spoken, you can now judge. We have passed 
from the field of prediction into the kingdom of fulfillment. (Laughter and ap- 
plause.) We have passed the period of prophecy since then, and have experi- 
enced in our o\^^^ homes, in our own employments, and in our own lives, the 
result of partial free trade and tariff tinkering. You know the conditions in 
1892. You know the conditions now. Which do you prefer? (Cries of 'The 
condition of 1892,' and 'McKiNLEY,' amid gi-eat applause.) How soon, if ever, 
we may reach the high water-mark of prosperity which 1892 registered, I do not 
know ; but I do know that we can make a strong and a long start in that 
direction by the proper use of our ballots this year in the restoration of con- 
fidence and of the policy that prevailed at that time. (Applause.) My fellow 
citizens, as if the dreadful experience of the last three years and a half was not 
enough for our people to bear, we have had injected into the campaign a new 
and very grave menace, affecting the currency of the country. This must 
be removed before confidence will come back again (a voice 'We will remove it 
all right,' followed by gi*eat laughter and applause) and the only way to remove 
it is to defeat the party that proposes it. (Cries of 'You are right,' and 'We 
will do it,' and loud cheering.) We can not have business confidence, we can 
not have uninterrupted prosperity, we can not have steady employment and good 
wages until we have restored confidence to the business of the United States. 
(Great applause.) We can not do that until we have established an unalterable 
purpose to keep every obligation of the Government sacred and every dollar of 
our currency as good as gold. (Continuous cheering.) Nor will business activity 
revive so long as we do any part of our work abroad that we can do at home. 
(Ci'ies of 'Right you are,' and continuous applause.) The people must not only 
have stability in their currency, but they must have stability in their tariff laws. 
These tariff laws must not be ever changing with each new Administration. You 
know — there is not a workingnran about me who does not know, there is not an 
employer of labor who does not know, that the home manufacturer must be able 
to count with certainty upon the character of his foreign competition, before 
lie can plan his year's work. He must know in advance what price he will have 
to meet in this market from his foreign competitor before he can fix either the 
number or the wages of his employes or the volume of his output. The sharper 
the home manufacturers' foreign competion is the lower must be the cost of his 
product, if he would keep this market. Is not that true? (Loud cries of 'Yes,' 
'Yes.') I need not say to you that the lower the price of the product the lower 
must be the wages of the labor producing it. Is not that true? (Loud cries of 
'Yes', 'Yes.') Nor need I tell you that the lower the tariff duties, the sharper 

427 



the foreign competition, tlie harder the fight to maintain this market, the lower 
will American wages be. If the liome manufacturer can not compete with a 
fair profit upon his capital, then he will not manufacture; and when that time 
comes, work and wages are no more and idleness follows, which is the curse of 
this and every other country. ( A voice, 'Hurrah for the McKinley bill' followed 
by laughter and applause. ) Your ballots on the third of November, with the bal- 
lots of your fellow citizens everywhere, will determine whether we are to have 
a shifting currency, or whether it shall be good and sound and be so recognized 
in every part of the world. These ballots, too, will help to determine whether 
w^e shall continue a tariff policy that fails to supply the Government with ade- 
quate revenue, or restore the one which will supply ample revenue and at the 
same time enable the labor of this country to be employed in doing the work of 
this country, rather than the labor of any other country while our own 
wojkingmen are idle. (Vociferous cheers, yells and shouts.) Your ballots are 
free. They belong to nobody in this world but yourselves. You have no one to 
answer to for your votes but your consciences and your God. (Cries of 'We will 
vote right, and don't you forget it,' and great applause.) Suffrage is the most 
priceless privilege of citizenship and should be free, fair and independent. I 
take delight in the fact that I have done my best always to make and keep the 
suffrage of the American people free. (Cries of 'We know you have' and cheer- 
ing.) If it is not free and fair, then this is no longer a Government for the people, 
and by the people, but a Government by some of the people for all of the peo- 
ple. (Tremendous cheers.) And that's not the sort of a Government oui- fathers 
established or which their sons have maintained. (Applause.) To the right- 
ful exercise of the ballot both the intellect and the conscience should be conse- 
crated. I bid you, workingmen of Canton, use your ballots as your intellects 
and consciences shall direct, moved by the highest and most honorable consid- 
erations which can influence the voter — that of the welfare of the people, and 
the honor and good name of the Government which we love. Use the ballot as 
wall best subserve your own interests and those of your family, whose welfare 
and happiness you have in your sacred keeping. I thank you from the bottom 
of my heart for this call. It is a pleasure I shall never forget. It is an honor I 
shall always cherish, and I can not find words to tell you how this great assem- 
blage of my own fellow citizens, coming from every shop and factory of the 
town, has given me courage and inspiration. I wish for you all the best in this 
life. I wish for your homes love, happiness and contentment, and for our com- 
mon country the greatest glory and highest prosperity. Good night." 
(Cheering lasting several minutes.) 

A LEHIQH VALLEY DELEGATION. 

Several hundred miners, mechanics, business men and other citizens, hailing 
from Bradford, Luzerne, Wyoming, Carbon and other towns of the Lehigh Valley, 
Pennsylvania, brought greetings to Major McKinley, on Friday morning, Oc- 
tober 16th. Their spokesman was Hon. James H. Codding, Congressman for 
the Fifteenth District, who said: 

" Major McKinley: Our country, anticipating your election, already feels 
and acts in the glow of the morning dawn. The full daylight, finding you our 
Chief Executive, will give relief, hopefulness and prosperity, while financial dis- 
order and revolutionary schemes will retire witli the darkness that gave them 
birth. To such consununation will be earnestly directed the best efforts of these, 
your fellow citizens, whom I have the honor of presenting to you.'' (Applause.) 

428 



Major ricKinley's Response. 

" Mr. CoDDiKG AND My Fellow Citizens: I very greatly appreciate this 
call and the generous message which your spokesman and Congressman has 
brought to me. I give you sincere welcome to my city and home. I can not 
stand in this presence without recalling a friendship, a long friendship, which I 
had with your former Eepresentative, Mr. Wright, a friendship which I shall 
always remember and cherish. We are so interwoven in interest in this 
country, that to hurt one State is to hurt the other. Also, every industry de- 
pends upon some other, and any interest is inter-dependent upon every other 
interest in this country. You mine coal in your valley because somebody wants 
that coal. The railroads want it ; the factories want it ; the shops want it. When 
the shops and the factories do not want it, the railroads do not want it, for they 
have little to haul ; and when neither the factories, the shops, the railroads, nor 
other industries want coal, and can not use it profitably, then coal is a drug on 
the market ; and when coal is not wanted, miners are not needed, and when 
miners are not required they are out of wages and in idleness. When that con- 
dition exists every interest about the mining regions, no matter where it may 
be located, the interests of the farmer, the merchant, and the tradesman, is 
seriously injured. You doubtless have had that experience in the last four 
years and you therefore know the value of prosperity in every other industry. 
You have no doubt long since gotten over the notion that protection only bene- 
fits a few industries hei*e and there. We have learned that whatever will set 
our wheels in motion or put our factories in operation, and give employment to 
men and women, will make good business everywhere (great applause and cries 
of * You are right') not only for the towns, but good business for the farmers. 
You can not iDut into idleness the great factories, and the mines 
of this country, without having every farmer feel the baleful influence. 
(Applause.) Now, what we want is that policy — whatever it may be — 
that will give us the greatest business activity; that which will set 
our wheels in motion ; that will create a demand for our products, not only at 
home but abroad. I have always believed that the way to secure the highest 
industrial activity in the United States is to have a judicious, protective tariff 
(great applause) that will defend our own interests and labor against the indus- 
tries and labor of the whole world. (Great applause.) I believe that it is the 
business of American statesmanship to encourage in every proper ,legal and consti- 
tutional way the energy, industry and genius of the American people. (Re- 
newed applause.) Therefore, I have always favored an ample protective tariff 
system. I would rather see the coal mines of the United States busy and all 
the miners employed every day than to buy coal a little cheaper from Nova 
Scotia (continued cheering and cries of 'That's the way to talk,' and 'That's 
right') and I would rather help to maintain the industries of the United States 
that we may be able to indulge in the proud boast which we made in 1892, that 
there was not a workingman in the United States who wanted to work that 
could not have work at profitable wages. (Renewed cheering.) Then, my fel- 
low citizens, what we want more than anything else, is confidence. We have 
lost it and I need not stop to discuss with you how. It has gone from 
us ; and men who have money, men who have capital, distrustful of 
the future, will not part with it for, if they do, they do not know 
whether they will ever get it back or not— interest or principal. The way to 
restore confidence is to have a settled tariff policy that will enable the manufac- 
turers to know just what their competition will be abroad, and then prepare for 

429 



it. Then, more than that, we want to have a currency that is unchangeable in 
value and equal to the best money in the world. (Loud and continuous cheer- 
ing.) We want everybody in and out of thi.s country to know that we are not a 
Nation of repudiators (great applause and cries of 'That's right' and 'Good/ 
'Good') and that we do not mean to eitlier cheat ourselves or anybody else by 
a short dollar. (Great applause.) Our dollars hereafter, as now, and ever since 
1879, shall continue to be worth one hundred cents each in gold, and not only at 
home but wherever trade goes. (Applause, and cries of 'That's right'. Then a lis- 
tener held up one of the large imitation dollars and said 'There's the other kind ' 
amid great laughter and applause ) I take it, that this other kind is not what 
any of you want. (Loud cries of 'No,' 'No,' 'We don't,' amid laughter and ap- 
plause.) What you want is the dollar that you have now. The only trouble 
is that you are not getting enough of them because you haven't work enough. 
(Applause and cries of 'That's right.') N )W, whatever will put our people to 
work is the true, patriotic and American policy, and the one which by your votes, 
on the third day of November, you can determine upon (applause, and cries of 
'That's what we'll do') for nobody determines anything for the American peo- 
ple but themselves. (Cries of 'That's the stuff.') They are supreme; we 
acknowledge no earthly sovereign but ourselves and we will exercise that 
sovereignty two weeks from next Tuesday. (Applause and cries of 'You bet.') 
Why, they say our money is too good! Nothing is too good for the American 
people. (Cries of 'That's right,' and applause.) Money, too good! Good 
money never made hard times, and poor money never brought good times. The 
old men in this audience will agree to that from their own experience. Money 
too good ! Why, labor in 1892, never was so well paid in all our history— labor 
was higher and interest lower than ever before. Now, my fellow citizens, I 
thank you for this call. Other delegations are coming, I will not detain you. 
You have given me pleasure by this visit. I trust you will have a pleasant time 
in Canton and a safe return to your homes." (Three rousing cheers were then 
given for "Major McKinley, the next President of the United States.") 

INVINCIBLE WE5T VIRGINIANS. 

Seven hundred people representing Wetzel and Tyler Counties, West Vir- 
ginia, brought greetings to Major McKinley, Friday, October 16th. They came 
principally from the little city of Sister'sviile and were headed by a club known 
as the "Elkins Invincibles." The delegation was accompanied by the Sisters- 
ville City Band, the Smith Cornet Band and Drum Corps, of Middlebourne. 
Introductory addresses were made by P. A. Shanor and E,. A. Moore. The 
party was a particularly enthusiastic one and the cheers with which Major 
McKinley was greeted were loud and prolonged. 

Major McKinley 's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : There are a large number of witnesses here today 
to the promises w'hich your spokesmen have given as to what West Virginia will 
do on the third day of November. If you do as well as you promise, I assure 
you the people of Ohio and my home city will be more than satisfied. (Applause 
and cries of 'We will do it.') I am glad to meet and greet you in Canton. I 
remember two years ago to have passed through the town of Sistersville and to 
have spoken for a little while, together with your now distinguished Senator 
Elkins, upon the pending questions dividing the parties of the country. I con- 
gratulate you that at the end of that campaign you recorded a splendid victory 

430 



for the Republican Party and added one more vote to the Republican sti-ength 
in the United States Senate. I trust the people of West Virginia have not 
changed their minds since that election (a voice, 'Not a bit of it,' followed by 
laughter and applause) and that they ai'e now, as then, in favor of a protective 
tariff, of sound money, and of honesty in public as well as in private transact- 
ions. I am glad to receive this visit from my fellow citizens of West Virginia. 
You come not only from the great oil center, but from two of the agricultural . 

counties of Northern West Virginia, both, I believe, coal mining counties widely 4 

traversed by great trunk railroads and largely interested in the material 
development of the resources of your State. Such being the case, I am sur- 
prised to be told by one of your spokesmen that one of these counties has in past 
elections been supporting a policy which is certainly opposed to her best inter- 
ests, I am giad to be assured that she means to no longer continue to do 
so, as the people now realize that it has been a policy that has not only retarded 
their county but has been detrimental to the growth and develop- 
ment of the resources of the United States ; a policy that robs your 
farmers of good markets and of good prices, and your miners and 
laborers of good wages — the reactionary and un-American policy of free trade. 
If there is a farmer or laborer here, or one elsewhere who may read what I ^i\y, 
who doubts the truth of this statement, I beg him to contrast, if he will, first, 
the condition of the farmers and laborers in this country in 1892 with that of the 
farmers and laborers of any other country of the world ; and second, to contract 
the comparative advantages of a protective tariil against a free trade policy ; 
thirdly, contrast his own condition now, and during the past three years in wiili 
that of the previous three years. Let him but examine the prices paid for liis 
products or for his labor in 1893, 1894 and 1895 under a threatened or actual op- 
eration of a tariff for revenue only law, with the prices or wages he received in 
1890, 1891 and 1892 under a protective tariff law ; and if he does not find the 
change from the old system to the new, disastrous to him, then we will be per- 
fectly content for him to sustain by his vote the present policy and cast his lot 
with the party which, in part at least, continues to uphold free trade. (Ap- 
plause.) Gentlemen of West Virginia, passion and prejudice have no place in 
such an examination. Party predilections should not influence our calm and 
sober judgment. Partisan or sectional bitterness can not jDroperly enter into 
this consideration. Let the facts alone, let his own personal experience be his 
guide ; let him be governed by the truth and abide by it, and the Republican 
Party will be entirely satisfied with his decision. My friends, the policy of 
protection to American farms, industi-y, enterprise and labor, is a broad National 
Ijolicy. (Cheers.) It has not a tinge of sectionalism in it; it is sound in truth 
and wholesome in practice. It is not narrow and provincial, but wide in its 
blessings and its benefits, always promoting industrial growth, serving National 
ends, rewarding individual effort and advancing the just aspirations and hopes 
of the American people. It is the doctrine of true patriotism ; the welfare of 
ovtr country and countrymen first ; our home and our families first, an ardent, 
sincere and genuine Americanism that loves our flag better than any other and 
would rather subserve our own interests than the interests of any other people. 
or of any other nation of the world. It is not the plea of one State agains^i 
another, or one group or section of States against another, but it is for the 
benefit of all— a policy that injures no American interest but promotes them 
all. It is only i^erfect when universal, and it is only under this principle that 
the Republican Party advocates its restoration. (Applause.) The way some 
of your orators used to talk to you was as if the tariff was a good thing for 

431 



the Ohio farmer and laborer but a positive detriment to those of West 
Virginia ; as if it could benefit the miner of Pennsylvania but injure the 
miner of West Virginia; as if the wheat and grain grower in Kansas, or the 
beet producer of Nebraska, would grow rich by its operations and the cotton 
and sugar planters of Texas and Louisiana become impoverished under it. 
Time and again you have heard them declare that while protection might 
be a good thing for New England, it was a curse to the West and the South, 
You know better now, after having had three years and a half experience 
under partial free trade. (Cries of 'You bet we do,' and great applause.) In 
vain did Republican speakers and papers remonstrate against this madness, but 
to no avail ; and so the people gave it a trial. With what result ? Is it not true 
that partial free trade has injured us one and all ? Is it not true that partial 
free trade has injured every interest and every industry in West Virginia? 
Have not the people and the Government grown steadily poorer under its de- 
structive operations ? Have not both producer and consumer been injured ? 
The Southern, in common with all the other States, steadily advanced under 
the protective system ; if there was a difference between them and the Northern 
States, it was in their favor steadily every year from 1870 to 1890, simply 
because their resources were greater and their development more general and 
rapid. (Applause.) The census of 1890, and other reliable reports, show greater 
gain in the South than in any other part of the country, and her enormous 
strides in the decade from 1880 to 1890 may well challenge admiration and pride. 
I doubt if a similar exhibit of such remarkable advancement towards commer- 
cial and manufacturing supremacy, or the advancement and uplifting of agi-icul- 
ture can be shown on any other page of the world's history. In August, 1888, 
eight years ago, I delivered an address before the Piedmont Chautauqua Asso- 
ciation, of Atlanta, Georgia, in which I endeavored to point out to the people of 
that and other Southern States, the great advantage it would be to their mate- 
rial interests to sustain and advocate the protective policy, and in that connec- 
tion cited the statistics of the advancement of the South under the American 
protective system as the best possible argument for its continued enforcement. 
Imposing as had been the progress from 1870 to 1880, the growth of the South 
from 1880 to 1890 is still more remarkable, and I want to call your attention to 
some particulars of it. According to the statistics quoted by General James 
LoNGSTREET, iu a Eepublican speech at Augusta, Georgia, on the 9th day of the 
present month, he said : 'Between 1880 and 1890 the true valuation (not the 
assessed valuation) of real and personal property of the South increased from 
$7,641,000,000 to $11,534,000,000 a gain of $3,800,000,000, or fifty per cent; 
while the New England and Middle States oombined gained onlj^ $3,900,000,000, 
or an increase of only twenty-two per cent. The value of farm property in 
the South in 1880 was $2,314,000,000, in 1890, $3,182,000,000, a gain of thirty- 
seven per cent. The increase in farm values in all other sections was about 
thirty per cent. In 1880, the South had $257,244,000 invested in manufacturing. 
In 1890 she had $659,288,000, a gain of 156 per cent while the gain 'of the 
entire country was but about 121 per cent. The value of the manufactured pro- 
ducts of the South in 1880, was $457,454,000. In 1890 it was $917,589,000, a 
gain of 100 per cent. In 1880 the factory hands in the South received $75,917,000. 
In 1890 they received $222,118,®00. In 1880 the South had invested, in cotton 
manufacturing, $21,976,000. In 1890, $61,100,000, and nqfv about $120,000,000. In 
1880 the South had $3,500,000 invested in the cotton seed oil industry., It now has 
more than $30,000,000 so invested. The railroad mileage of the South has been 
increased since 1880 more than 25,000 miles at a cost in building new roads and 

432 



in the improvement of the old ones of over one billion dollars. In 1880 the 
South made 397,000 tons of pig iron. In 1895 it made 1,702,088 tons. In IstlO 
the South's output of coal was 6,000,000 tons. At present it is at the rate of 
30,000,000 per year.'. This, my fellow citizens, all occurred after the so-called 
crime of 1873, when the free coinage of silver was suspended. No other section 
of this country, no other section of the world, made such progress as the South 
made between 1880 and 1890, and during all that period we were on a gold basis, 
one dollar being as good as every other dollar and all of them equal to the best ; 
at the same time we were under a protective tariff policy that encouraged our 
own development and the increase of our own manufactures. Do you want to 
turn your backs upon that policy, men of West Virginia? Do you want a return 
of that prosperity which you so signally enjoyed from 1880 to 1890? (Cries of 
'You bet we do,' and great applause.) Then, my fellow citizens, the way to 
accomplish that is to vote for that party — not for the individual — but to vote 
for that party that has always stood for a protective tariff and believes in pro- 
tecting our own as against all the world. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'We 
will do it.') This, my fellow citizens, has been the principle of the Eepublican 
Party from the beginning. It is its principle now, and our party believes now, 
as it has always believed, that the business of this country must be done with 
dollars that are worth one hundred cents each in every State of the Union, and 
in every part of the civilized world. (Renewed cheers-.) We do not want 
cheap dollars any more than we want cheap men. (Great applause and cries of 
'That's the stuff.') We no more want free silver than we want free trade. (Ap- 
plause.) AVe want good money and a protective tariff, and then we want, by 
our votes on the third of November, to tell the whole world that thi& is a Gov- 
ernment of law and a Government of integrity and unsullied honor. (Renewed 
cheers.) I again thank you, my fellow citizens, for this call, and trust that the 
third of November will record, as your spokesmen have indicated, the 
electoral vote of West Virginia in the right column. I will be glad to 
meet and greet you all." (Three cheers for ^Nlajor McKinley.) 

ny; ■ A REMARKABLE DAY IN CANTON. 

Saturday, October 17th, set another new mai-k in the history of the cam- 
paign. Delegations arrived before daylight, and Major McKinley made an 
address teefore breakfast. He made another as soon as he had finished that 
meal and two more with only sufficient intermission to move one crowd from 
the lawn and another one on. Then there was a little interval of quiet during 
which Major McKinley took a little w-alk for exercise around the block, only 
to resume speaking to delegations which came faster and with greater crowds than 
ever before having grown, by this time, far beyond the accommodations of the 
lawn, they filled the abutting streets and the adjoining lawns, and the speaking 
was done from the reviewing stand. The receiving and handling of delegations 
was the greatest task yet experienced by Canton Ti-oop and the Citizens' Re- 
ception Committee. It was utterly impossible to take delegations to their des- 
tinations as they arrived, for many trains came in sections and the streets lead- 
ing from the various stations were constantly filled with bodies of marching 
men, or clubs, awaiting orders to march. These orders were given just as fast 
as room could be made. There were many bands on the march from early 
morning until late at night, and the music on each side of the McKinley home 
frequently suspended speech-making until some one could get to the leaders 
to silence them. The best estimate obtainable, Saturday night, was that the 

433 



special trains, fifty-nine in number, brought five hundred car loads of people. 
Regular trains hauled extra coaches which for the most part were crowded. 
Private conveyances brought people from all surrounding towns and country, 
and Canton people massed at the scenes of the demonstrations. Never before 
in Canton's history has there been such a crowd assembled as that gathered on 
the Public Square, at the McKixley home and at the railway stations. Major 
McKixLEY did not attempt to speak to each separate delegation. The crowds 
were bunched together, where possible, and all werei-eached in turn by speeches. 
But he was addressed by spokesmen for each party and probably more orations 
were delivered from the stand on the front of his lawn than from any other 
political platform in the world, in the same number of hours. 

A niCHIQAxN COUNTY FIRST. 

Major McKixLEY was greeted with shouts and cheers and hurrahs for the 
Hepubiican cause before he had breakfasted. The early callers came from 
Monroe, Michigan, and numbered a' out three hundred people. It was a 
representative body, made up principally of farmers and business men. D. A. 
Curtis was the spokesman of the party. He said the Wolverine State could be 
depended upon for twenty thousand for McKinley and Hobart, protection, 
reciprociry and sound money. To this the crowd objected, saying the figures 
were too low and they proposed to make them fifty thousand. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens AND Ladies and Gentlemen: I can assure you of 
one thing — that you are the first callers I have had this morning. (Laughter and 
applause.) And I shall expect on the night of the third of November — accepting 
the assurances of your spokesman — to hear the first advices of a spendid Ke- 
publican victory from the county of Monroe and the State of Michigan. (Great 
applause and cries of 'You will hear from us.') I am glad to greet and welcome 
you. I have never believed, as some people have been claiming, that there was 
ever any danger about the result in the State of Michigan . There has never been a 
moment when I have had the slightest doubt about where the electoral vote of 
your glorious State would go in the Presidential contest of 1896. No State in 
the Union is more deeply interested in the genuine American policy that will 
protect your property, your interests, your labor, your mines, the products of 
your forests from undue competition than the State of Michigan. (Applause 
and cries of 'That's so.') And there is no State that is more deeply interested 
in having a protective policy than your State. (Applause and cries of 'You are 
right.') There is one thing that the Republican Party is dedicated to and that 
is labor first ; then to law and order ; these are indispensable to the welfare of 
mankind and indispensable to the prosperity and the permanency of the Re- 
public. I am glad to know from your spokesman that you believe not only in 
a protective tariff, but that you believe in honest money. (Great cheering.) 
When you do your work, whether it be on the farm, or in the factory, or in the 
mines, you want to receive in payment, dollars that are good every day and every 
week and every month, and everywhere in every part of the civilized world. (Great 
applause and cries of 'You are right.') That's the kind of money we have now 
and we have more of it than we ever had in our history before. To enter upon 
the free and unlimited coinage of silver, would be to remit this country to silver 
alone and deprive us of the gold we have ; instead of increasing the 
circulation it would decrease the circulation of the country, and instead of giv- 

434 



ing us good, one hundred cent dollars, which we have now, they w^ould ask us 
to do our business with a fifty-two cent dollar and bring ourselves to the finan- 
cial plane of Mexico and China. We decline to do it. (Great cheering and 
cries of 'That's what's the matter.') I am glad to see you. It will be my pleas- 
ure to meet and greet each one of y-ou personally." (Great applause.) 

AN EARLY KEYSTONE DELEGATION. 

The first train to arrive, Saturday morning, pulled into the Fort Wayne 
station at 4:30 o'clock, and brought the first section of the Altoona and Blair 
county, Pennsylvania, contingent. There were twelve coaches with nearly 
nine hundred people, principally citizens of Altoona. The Pennsylvania 
Railroad C ompany's Em iloyes Sound Money McKinley Club was the main 
part of the ueiegation and numbered about six hundred voters. The second 
section from the same place brought thirteen car loads of people, the 
total number of Blair county visitors aggregating about eighteen hundred 
persons. Cambria county sent a delegation of one hundred millers from Soutli 
Fork City. The Pennsylvanians were met at the depot by the Reception Coju- 
mittee and Canton Troop, and escorted to the various headquarters. The pro- 
cession formed at 8 :30 o'clock and marched to Major McKinley's residence. 
J. H. DiETRicK introduced the South Fork party, whom he said are for protec- 
tion, sound money and Federal protection when needed. Edwakd HtranES 
spoke for the others. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : It gives me great pleasure to meet at my home the 
workingmen and my fellow citizens in general of Blair and Cambria counties, 
Pennsylvania. I appreciate the fact that you have journeyed a long distance 
to bring assurances of your good will and of your purpose to assist in giving a 
triumphant victory to the Republican cause and principles this year. (Great 
applause and cries of 'That's what we'll do.' ) This is a year of true and genuinr" 
patriotism. (Cries of 'That's what it is.') This is a year which registers a re- 
vival of true Americanism. (Cries of 'That's right.') Rivers do not divide us; 
mountains can not separate us ; State lines and sectional lines are all obliterated 
and this year we stand unitedly for the American Union, the American honor, 
and the glorious old Stars and Stripes. (Tremendous cheering.) Two week.s 
from next Tuesday the people of this country will exercise that majestic 
sovereignty which is peculiar to no nation but ours. (Great applause and 
cries of 'Thank God.') It is difficult to measure the full force of a National 
election ; of its mighty power for good or ill. It determines policies and ad- 
ministrations, and 1-egislation affecting every industry of the country. Its 
power is both appalling and inspiring. If we needed any demonstration of the 
mighty effect of such an election, as is to occur two weeks from next Tuesday, 
it is furnished in that of 1892, when from sunrise to sunset on the 9th day of 
November, the people changed the Administration, not only in person merely, 
but in purpose. That electio'n was a verdict for a new policy, which was 
opposed to that which had prevailed for the greater part of the lifetime of the 
Republic. Its effect was immediately felt. It was the voice of the people, and, 
therefore, in a country like ours, the law. of the R'epublic; and while months 
were to elapse before the new Administration went into power, its acts were in 
part at least, foreseen and anticipated. The Nation stood quaking in the fear 

435 



of its own verdict ; and with all the rejoicing, there was much foreboding. Men 
looked into the future with fear and apprehension. (Cries of 'That's right.') 
Orders for machinery were canceled ; contracts were annulled ; buying and sell- 
ing were curtailed ; plans which had been formed for the extension of business 
werb abandoned ; works already built were not equipped with machinery ; doubt 
and uncertainty hung over the country. Have I overdrawn the picture? (Cries 
of 'No,' 'No.') Did we appreciate the full force of that great National election 
and the effect of our individual votes upon its result and of the result on the 
country? (Cries of 'No,' 'No,' and 'It seems not.') I fear not. I speak of this 
not to recall the past, which is beyond our recall, but rather to em^iJiasize'the 
solemn seriousness of a National election ; its vital and supreme importance, to 
the end that we may realize the sacred and valued interests which are involved 

in a popular election under our form of Government. (Applause.) More 

infinitely more— is involved in the contest of 1896 than in the contest of 1892, 
grave and serious as it was. (Cries of 'That's right, Major.') We have all at 
issue that was then involved and more. Then it was only a question of the 
principle of taxation which should govern us, about which honest men might 
fairly differ, but about which there is less difference now than then. Now the 
serious question is involved of all values of every form of property, real, 
personal and mixed ; wages in shops, in mines and on the farm; investments in 
building and loan associations and savings banks ; the value of every trust 
estate ; the endowment of every college and charity ; every salary and income ; 
the savings of frugal toil ; the inheritance of the helpless minor children ; and 
the pension of every soldier and sailor, or their widows and orphans, are in- 
volved and will be affected by the votes of the American people two weeks from 
next Tuesday. (Applause and cries of 'Correct,' 'Correct.') Every one of these 
vital interests are assailed. Not one of them escapes. My fellow citizens, shall 
the assault be successful? (Loud cries of 'No,' 'Never.') This is the challenge to 
the American people. What will their answer be? (Cries of 'McKixley,' fol- 
lowed by great cheering, ) There can be but one answer— truth and righteous- 
ness, justice and honesty, which have always charterized American citizenship, 
can give but one answer, a verdict that will leave no doubt of the unquestioned 
honesty of the American people. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') The Chicago Dem- 
ocratic platform refused to protect these gi'eat interests against the change of 
values that would follow free coinage, which they propose. (Cries of 'We don't 
want free coinage.') If they had been willing to say that all existing contracts 
and obligations, of every kind wiiatsoever, made upon the present standard of 
value, should be settled in that standard, there would have been a suggestion of 
honesty in that. But that was instantly rejected when offered by the Senator 
from New York, Mr. Hill. They might at least have said that the fifty-two 
cent dollar should only apply to the business done and the contracts made after 
its adoption. There would have been a show of honesty in that, for it would 
have given everybody an equal chance to prepare for it. (Cries of 'Right.') 
The mere proposition to change values and existing contracts, must insure its 
instant rejection by the American people. (Cries of 'Correct,' 'Correct.') There 
are two standards, my countrymen, that the Republican Party insists shall be 
sacred — our monetary standard and the old scale of American wages. (Tre- 
mendous cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKixley.') This is our busy day 
in Canton (great laughter) and mucli as I would love to talk to you longer, I 
am forced to bid you good morning that I may in a moment greet another 
delegation." (Great applause.) 

436 



THOUSANDS OF PENNSYLVANIANS. 

A delegation from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, arrived about noon at the Fort 
Wayne Eailvray station. There were over two hundred voters in the McKinley 
Olub, and all wore badges designating their organization. They were address- 
ed at the same time as the Huntingdon people. Particular local interest was 
attached to the next delegation. The party, several hundred in number, came 
from Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, the home of Mrs. MoKinley's ancestors, the 
Saxtons, so prominently identified with Canton. The members of the delega- 
tion represented the various interests of Huntingdon and vicinity. The spokes- 
man of the party. Judge Williamson, presented Mrs. McKinley a framed pic- 
ture representing the homes of her ancestors and other historic spots about 
Huntingdon, and also several nails mounted on a card which was made by her 
great grandfather in 1815. Judge Williamson said: 

" Major McKinley — I have the distinguished honor of presenting to you, 
today, a delegation of sturdy mountaineers from Pennsylvania. We come 
from the Eastern slope of the grand old Alleghenies, from the hills and the val- 
leys of the famous Blue Ridge — from Huntingdon, on the banks of the blue 
Juniata — that classic Keystone stream, that peerless little river — 'The lovely 
Juniata.' (Applause.) Our country is rich in iron ore and semi-bituminous 
coal. Four short years ago we were a prosperous, happy and industrious peo- 
ple. Our labor was plenty, our wages good. We were living on the fat of the 
land, but a terrible blight has fallen upon us. The fires are out in our fur- 
naces ; our mines are empty ; the busy hum of our factories and mills has ceased. 
We are sad, disconsolate and cast down. Oh! how great the change! We 
come, sir to you, the apostle of protection, as the savior of our National integ- 
rity and the restorer of our land's prosperity. We come with renewed hope 
and courage. We believe that the great God, who rules over all will hear and 
answer our prayers, and that on November third you will be elected President of 
this great land by the largest majority ever registered. (Applause.) AVe come 
to encourage you, to hold up your hands, to bid you godspeed in this great fight 
for the prosperity, the success and the advancement of America and the 
American people. Major, we are praying for you and our powder is dry. (Ap- 
plause.) Our delegation has directed me to present this historical picture to 
Mrs. McKinley. We are proud to know that Huntingdon was the home of her 
ancestors, and that she is one of us. That house in the center was the home of 
the late James Saxton, your lovely wife's great-grandfather. There Joshua 
Saxton, her grandfather was born. In that house in a small upper room 
twelve feet square, was held the first quarterly meeting of the great Methodist 
Episcopal church in the Juniata Valley. There in 1797, a noble band of seven, 
led by James Saxton, renewed their religious vows. James Saxton, so say some 
of our oldest citizens who still remember him, was an honest man, a good 
citizen and a devout christian. He was a nail maker by trade, an industrious 
man, and made the nails in that early day by hand. A short time since an old 
building was torn down in Huntingdon, when a carpenter said: 'This thing 
was nailed together with some of old Jim Saxton 's homemade nails and the 
devil can neither pull them out or break them off.' (Laughter.) This picture 
on the left is a true representation of Stone Creek, a mountain stream that 
skirts our town on the east. The picture ,on the right is a representation of a 
rough monument and land mark erected at an early day by the Indians to mark 
the site of our town, which was then called 'The Standing Stone.' Below you 
have a view of our beautiful mountain village. Again, and in conclusion, for 

437 



my time is limited, we all join in wishing you godspeed in this great tight 
against the most abominable heresy of modern times." (Great applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens : I am glad to make acknowledgment of this visit 
from the citizens of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and to receive the warm and 
earnest assurances of your spokesman of the profound interest you feel in the 
triumph of Republican principles. This is a Nation of mutual interests ; a Nation 
of reciprocal employments and obligations. All of us are more or less depend- 
ent upon each other. We can not get on without our neighbors. "We can not 
get on without industrial enterprises. We can not get on without the employ- 
ments and occupations of our neighbors. This old fabric of ours rests upon 
common and mutual interests. It is not true to say that you c^n benefit the 
State of Pennsylvania by judicious legislation, without benefiting the State of 
Ohio. (Applause.) It is not just to say that you can benfit the North and injure 
the South by wise tariff legislation. What benefits one State benefits another; 
what benefits one section benefits the others. If we need any demonstration of 
that, we have only to point to our own history and consult our own experience. 
(Cries of 'That's Right.') For thirty or more uninterrupted years, we had in 
this country that great doctrine of a protective tariff written into public law, 
(great cheering) and during all those years we enjoyed unprecedented prosper- 
ity not only in the North but in the South ; not only in one occupation, but in 
every occupation; not only in the factory and in the mine, but on the farm, for 
tiie farmer is prosperous when the laborer is prosperous. (Cries of 'Right,' 
Right.') Prices are better for the farmer when the great consuming classes 
of our country are steadily employed at remunerative wages. (Great applause 
and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') We stand today for that policy. AVe stand for 
that other policy, too, that would spurn the Government's putting upon a piece 
of metal the declaration that it is a dollar when it lacks forty-eight cents of 
being a dollar. (Gi*eat applause.) Our Government never did such a thing in 
tlie past, and it does not propose to start out on the pathway of dishonor now. 
(Great cheering and cries of 'Never,' 'Never.') We propose this year, my felr 
low citizens, to demonstrate to all mankind that this is- a Government of integ- 
rity, a Government of law, by law and under law. (Great cheering and cries of 
'That's the stuff.') I am glad to receive at your hands, Mr. Chairman, on behalf 
of Mrs. McKiNLEY, this souvenir from the home of her ancestors. Ancestral 
ties are always strong and interesting; and I am prepared to believe all that 
your spokesman has said about her great-grandfather Saxtox with my knowl- 
edge of one member of that family '(great applause) good old John Saxtox, of 
precious memory, who lived here for more than sixty years ^ and for more than 
fifty years was the editor of the old Canton Repository, which he founded— a 
paper that has never faltered in its devotion to country and Republican princi- 
ples. (Applause.) I thank you for this call, and bid you good morning." 
(Great applause.) 

GRAND RAPIDS AND KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN. 

Major McKixLEY made his fourth address to residents of Grand Rapids and 
Kalamazoo, Michigan. The delegation came under the auspices of the Railroad 
Men's Sound Money Club, of Grand Rapids. There were in the party about 
six hundred from Grand Rapids and one hundred from Kalamazoo. They were 
accompanied by the A. 0. U. W. Zouaves, and an excellent Drum and Bugle 
Corps of Grand Rapids. Attorney Willis B. Perkixs was their spokesman. 

438 1 



Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : I welcome the people of Western Michigan. I recall 
several visits I have made to the city of Grand Rapids, and the great assemblages 
which greeted me, and I am glad to have you at last return my frequent calls. 
(Great laughter and cries of 'Good,' 'Good'.) I recall also with pleasure my at- 
tendance upon that great Republican love feast annually held in the city of 
Detroit on the anniversary of the birth of Washington. There is one thing that 
can be said about the Republican Party — it can celebrate the anniversaries of 
all the great American statesmen, no matter to what party they may li ' ve be- 
longed, who stood for the country and its honor. (Great applause.) We have 
no difficulty in celebrating, too, with our Democratic friends, the anniversary 
of Jefferson, Jackson and Benton. We celebrate these anniversaries with the 
same satisfaction that we celebrate the anniversaries of the early statesmen 
who were more nearly of our own political belief. You have, my fellow citi- 
zens, a great and wonderful State. This year, it seems to me, Republicanism, 
more than ever before, proud as has been its record in the past, is synonymous 
with patriotism and represents all that is best in the past records and teachings 
of all American parties and statesmen. You come from a State of the most 
magnificent material resources, girted by lakes and noble rivers, and crossed and 
re-crossed by great trunk line railroads. Michigan not only has more shipping 
than any other Western State, but her commerce in every other particular is of 
exceeding great importance. You glance at the map and you see at once the 
importance of her lake traffic ; but did you ever think that she has within her 
borders over five hundred lakes, covering easily a thousand square miles, and 
including islands of six times that territory ? And, my fellow citizens, great as 
is the importance of your commerce, you are not left with that alone You 
have immense advantages in both mining and manufacturing. Tlie commerce 
of Detroit and Port Huron, your chief shipping points, amounts to about ten 
millions annually. (Applause.) Under the census law of 1890 every industrial 
establishment including mines and factories, in which the value of the product 
was two hundred dollars or more, was returned. Michigan reported the total 
number of her industrial establishments of all kinds as 8,812; capital invested, 
$251,000,0<X) ; value of materials used, $125 000,000 ; value of productions, $237,000,- 
000, and 165,600 ejnployes. The total in wages paid during the year ending June 
1, 1890, was $60,000,000. (Applause.) You know better than I do the condition of 
labor in Michigan now. Is it in the same condition it was in 1890? (Cries of 
'No,' 'No.') In 1891 or in 1892 ? (Renewed cries of 'No,' 'No ') In agricul- 
ture, Michigan is equally prominent with an acreage of about J4,0(X),000 of ex- 
cellent farm lands, valued at $500,000,000, and an annual product of over $91,- 
000,000. And how shall we speak of Michigan's great wealth in minerals? 
From 1880 to 1890, she produced more than 12,000,000 bushels of salt, the great- 
est product of any similar territory in the world. (Applause.) Coal underlies 
6,700 square miles of her surface, while her iron ore product is far greater than 
that of any other State. In 1890, more than 6,000,000 tons, valued at $16,000,- 
000, were produced. Indeed, J saw the statement of a great statistician ten 
years ago, that down to that time Michigan had shipped within a single decade 
57,000,000 tons of iron ore, worth $285,000,000. These figures are indeed start- 
ling, but bear in mind that Michigan produces (or once did) one-third of the 
entire American output. Then, in the production of lumber, how remarkabV? 
the showing of the State of Michigan is, or has been ! Then your great furni- 
ture manufactories of Grand Rapids, the pride and admiration of the entire 

439 



country, were busy with thousands of employes working at living wages. Ilovr 
is it today, men of Grand Rapids? (Cries of 'No work.') From the close of 
the war up to 1880, it was estimated that you had turned out the enormous pro- 
duction of nearly nine billion feet of lumber. I can not go into the details of 
the product in the good times of 1890. Suffice it to say that it was much tlie 
largest of any equal territory in this or any other country. AVHien we reflect, 
the development of all this wealth is in a State of less than 60,000 square miles 
and among people not yet 2,500,000 in number, we can begin to realize how 
great is our country. (Applause.) Can it be possible that such a magnificent 
Commonwealth will ever lend her influence to free silver, free trade, dislionor 
and partial or entire repudiation? (Cries of 'No,' 'Never.') No, I say, forever 
no. What the people of this country w^ant, whether they dwell in Michigan, 
or Tennessee or Ohio, is a policy that will protect and defend every American 
iiiterest against the outside world, from any quarter. (Great cheering.) "What 
we want is a tariff put upon foreign goods high enough not only to give us rev- 
enue enough to run the Government, but to afford adequate protection to every 
American industry and occupation. (Great applause and cries of 'That's the 
stuff.') This is the policy of the Republican Party. (A voice 'It's a good one,' 
and great applause.) What we w^ant is to restore a policy that will enable us 
to pay as we go, both Government and people. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') AVe 
have not been doing that for four years past. (Cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') I am 
sure your great and grand State can be relied upon to enroll itself in the col- 
umn for National honor, as against repudiation, for a protective tariff, I'eciproc- 
ity, and the maintenance everywhere of public orderjs tranquility and the 
supremacy of law. (Great cheering.) I thank you, my fellow citizens, for the 
courtesy of your call and bid you good morning." (Great cheering.) 

OHIO'S WESTERN RESERVE. 

The first train from Ashtabula county arrived at eleven o'clock, Saturday, 
October 17th, at the Fort Wayne station. It was made up of twelve coaches and 
brought one of the finest appearing crowds that visited Canton. It was com- 
posed of clubs from Geneva and Jefferson and they came well prepared for a 
glorious time. They numbered about 1,000 people. The second and third sec- 
tions arrived about noon. They comprised twenty-six coaches of Republican 
enthusiasts with a desire to shake hands and express their personal esteem and 
promise support to the Republican candidate. The second section was princi- 
pally citizens of Ashtabula and it required seventeen coaches to convey them 
to Canton. The third section was from Ajidover and adjacent points and con- 
tained about 500 persons. The special train bearing over 500 farmers and miners 
of Perry county arrived over the Cleveland, Canton and Southern road at 
about the same time. A drum corps, whose memberswere all veterans of the late 
v.ar, and the Roseville Band acted as escort. A second special bearing the 
Muskingum county people arrived at half past twelve. The Union County 
McKinley Club, composed of 500 residents of Milford Center and vicinity 
arrived at two o'clock at the Fort AVayne station. They were accomjianied 
by the McKinley Drum Corps. Thus the fifth crowd addressed by Major 
McKinley was enormous, completely filling the yard and extending far into 
the streets and the adjoining lawns. Music was furnished by eight or ten 
bands from the various counties. Congressman Stephen A. Northway spoke 
for Aahtabula county and Mr. S. A\'. Pason for tlie others. 

' - 440 



Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I give warm and sincere welcome to the citizens of 
Ashtabula, Muskingum, Perry and Union counties. I am glad to greet you 
at my home and thank you for the W'arm assurances of support 
which you bring and which have been so eloquently expressed by your 
spokesmen. There appears to be a studied effort in some quarters of this 
country to teach that the employer of labor is attempting to enslave the work- 
ingman. I ask you, men of toil, all around and about me, who is the belt?r 
friend of labor, he who gives you work that brings contentment, or he who 
breathes only words that create discontent? There can not be, there ought 
never to be, any enmity between labor and capital. (Cries of 'No,' 'No,' and 
great appliuse.) The interest of the one is the interest of the other. You 
know that tlie greatest friend of slavery is idleness. They talk about making 
the w^orkingmen slaves. There is no danger of a w'orkingman ever becoming a 
slave if he has American wages, (three tremendous cheers) the wages that he had 
for thirty years from 1860 to 1890, under the glorious policy of a protective tariff. 
(Enthusiastic cheers and beating of drums.) The best friend of labor, the best 
policy in the interests of labor, is that policy which gives workingmen an 
opportunity to labor at good wages. (Cries of 'That's right' and 'Good,' 'Good,' 
and applause. ) Which policy do you think subserves that interest best--our 
protective policy or their free trade policy? (Tremendous shouts of 'Ours,' 
'Ours,' and a voice, 'McKixley's policy.') This great audience fairly represents 
the diversified industries of the United States. On one side of me are men who 
manufacture; on the other side are men who handle iron ore; in front are men 
whodig our coal. Each is dependent on the other. Here in this audience, too, are 
representatives of the raih'oads of the country, who transport not only the raw 
material, but the finished product from one end of this country to the other. Tiie 
one is never prosperous unless the other is prosperous. (Applause and cries of 
'That's right.') You know that from experience (Cries of 'Right you are.') 
There is not a handler of ore at Ashtabula harbor who does not know that when 
the great ore and steel industriesof thiscountry are stopped, he hasnothingto do. 
(Great applause.) There is not a coal miner from Perry county who does not 
know that when the fires are extinguished in our furnaces there is no demand 
for him. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') Now the Republican policy is 
universal. It applies to evei'y industry, from the man who digs the coal, which 
they call the raw material — if they just tried digging it for a time, however, 
they would find it not so very raw. (Great laughter and applause.) From the 
man who mines the ore in Michigan and Minnesota to the man v/ho handles it 
at our great ports and to the final finished product, the Republican policy pro- 
tects and defends them all. (Great cheering.) And what do we defend them 
against? We defend them against the products of a cheaper labor in the old 
world. (Renewed cheei'ing and cries of 'That's right.') We defend our labor 
because in the United States every laboring man is an equal citizen with every 
other man in the country. (Continuous cheers.) I am glad to see you ; glad to 
meet you; glad to have your assurances o^ an unprecedented victory in Ohio this 
year. (Tremendous cheers.) Ohio never has been behind. (Cries of 'And she 
never will be,' followed by applause and laughter.) She led in the great Civil War 
and she has led in the march of progress, and her statesmanship has been im- 
pressed upon the most glorious pages of American history. I give you warm 
and generous greeting to my home and trust you may have a pleasant visit in 
our city and get back to your homes without accident or misfortune of any 
kind." (Continuous cheering, waving of banners and handkerchiefs.) 

441 



PITT5BURQ ONCE AGAIN. 

The employes of the Oliver Mills, of Pittsburg, arrived on four trains of 
forty-five coaclies. The total number of shop men and mill employes numbered 
nearly three thousand persons. They were accompanied by jVIr. Davii) Omvek, 
one of the officers of the firm. The delegations represented the Hain.sworth 
Steel Works, the Baker Chain Iron Manufacturing Company, the Oliver Wire 
Company, Oliver Fence Company, the Rod Mill and Nail ]Mill, the Steel Cast- 
ing Company, and other shops of the Oliver Mills. They were accompanied by 
the famous American Military Band, of Pittsburg, and a number of other musi- 
cal organizations. The Monongahela Tinplate Works, and the Oliver Coke 
Works' employes arrived in Canton on a special train. The Select Knights' 
Band accompanied th^m. They had banners of every description and were 
very enthusiastic and kept cheering continuously. There were 3,500 people in 
this audience. George T. Oliver, president of the Oliver Company, spoke 
for them. 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens : I am gratified to meet at my home the working- 
men of the several establishments of the Oliver Brothers' Company, of Pitrs- 
burg, and of the Monongahela Tinplate Works. (Great cheering. ) I am glad 
to greet those here from every department of industry, and also, to greet 
my fellow citizens of Fayette county, who have joined with this great delega- 
tion in bringing assurances of their support and good will. (Great applause.) 
There is one thing that can be said about the Republican Party — it does not 
teach the doctrine of hate and prejudice, but teaches the gospel of peace, good 
will and fraternity between the employer and the employe. (Loud cries of 
' That's so.') The man who would array the poor against the rich, labor against 
capital, classes against classes, or section against section, is not a friend of the 
country but is an enemy of the very best interests of every American citizen. 
(Great applause and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') I would rather teach 
that doctrine which is so prevalent this year, North and South, that none are 
for party but all for the Government. (Great .applause.) This is the true policy of 
sturdy American citizenship and civilization. I look into your earnest faces 
and think I know what is in your hearts. (Cries of ' MoKinley,' 'McKixley.') 
There is but one aim and purpose and this is that you may have an opportunity 
to work for yourselves and for your families. (Great applause and cries 
of ' Good,' ' Good.') This opportunity is best enjoyed when we do our own 
work in the United States and not in some other country. We can not 
have this, however, until we have a return of confidence, which can only 
come when the American people have settled for all time that they will 
have no depreciated currency and declare that the principles of the Re- 
publican Party shall be upheld. (Loud cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') Wlien 
confidence comes, money will come; if you had all the silver of the world 
in the United States (cries of ' We don't want it') it would not make 
more business. (Great applause.) Business makes money, money does not 
make business. (Great cheering.) Everyone of you had plenty of work at 
good wages until the free trade policy was inaugurated in 1893. (Cries of 
' That's what we had.') We want to restore our protective policy. (Great 
applause.) No business man will manufacture if he does not believe that 
at the end of the year he will make a profit. (Great cheering and cries of 
'Good,' 'Good.') The business man can not plan for the trade if he does not 

44" 



know what kind of competition he is to have from abroad. (Cries of ' That's 
right.') The less he has of foreign competition the more work you have at 
home at better wages and prices. (Great applause.) I thank you for this visit. 
Nothing gives me greater satisfaction or calls from me deeper gi-atitude than 
to have the workingmen of this country enroll themselves on the side of good 
government, sound money, and the supremacy of law. (Great applause and 
cri-s of ' That's the stuff.') Again thanking you for this compliment, I bid you 
good afternoon." (Great applause.) 

CLEVELAND WORKINQHEN'S DELEGATION. 

Major McKiXLEY delivered his seventh talk, Saturday, October 17th, to 
three hundred employes of the Adams-Bagnall Electrical Company, of Cleve- 
land, Ohio, who were introduced by L. H. Rogers. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizen's: I only appear long enough to make suitable ac- 
knowledgment of the kind message which the Adams-Bagnall Electric Com- 
pany employes bring to me today. (Applaiise.) I am glad to know that those 
engaged in that company believe in the policies advocated by the Republican 
Party. (Applause and cries of 'That's what we do.') I am glad to know that 
they stand for public honor and public law; that they believe in an honest 
dollar (cries of 'Good,' 'Good') and in the great doctrine of American protec- 
tion (cheering) which encourages and develops American enterprise, skill and 
genius. I thank you most heartily for your coming, and as other delegations 
are here awaiting me, I must content myself with saying goodbye." (Great 
applause.) 

AN INDIANA ORGANIZATION. 

A party of seven firemen, carrying the banner of the McKinley and Hobart 
Club, of Hobart, Lake county, Indiana, traveled all the way from the Illinois 
border to extend their greetings. A. J. Swaxson was their spokesman. He said 
in part: "We believe in America for Americans; we consecrate ourselves to 
the proposition that honesty is the best policy ; we look with disfavor upon any 
policy that even savors of repudiation, communism and nullification. "We 
assure you that the good citizens of the little city of the grand old Hoosier 
State, regardless of previous political affiliations, regard it not only their pleas- 
ure but their sacred duty to emphasize their adherence to one country, one 
flag, and an honest dollar, by casting their votes for McKinley and Hobart." 
(Applause.) 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: You missed a very good speech in your effort to 
shake hands with me and I appear in response to that speech to thank the 
Hobart Club of Lake county, Indiana, for there presence here today. (Ap- 
plause.) You have a good name— Hobart. (Renewed applause.) That name 
is on our ticket this year. (Great cheering.) I am glad to meet my fellow citi- 
zens of Indiana, the State of that grand old War (governor, Oliver P. Morton, 
and of Benjamin Harrison. (Great applause.) And now thanking you, as I do 
most heartily, for the kind messages of good will which you bring through your 
spokesman, I bid you all good afternoon." (Great applause.) 

443 ' 



OHIO COnriERCIAL TRAVELERS. 

The largest single delegation of Commercial Travelers to come to Canton 
arrived via the Fort Wayne Railroad at 1 :10 o'clock. They can:e from Columbus, 
Ohio, and there were over one thousand men in line. Tiie Commercial Men's 
Club, of Toledo, with other citizens, arrived on a special Fort Wayne train at 
1 :50 o'clock. There were nine coaches of these visitors. The Commercial Men's 
Sound Money Club numbered two hundred and fifty-five men. E. E. Daw spoke 
for Toledo and introduced his party as former Democrats and Republicans who 
had cast party lines aside and united in a club to promote the interests for which 
Major McKixLEV stood and which they believed were the best interests of the 
Nation. They believed in a free covintry, he said, but that free silver and free 
trade were relics of slavery. Jonx 0. Fexximore spoke for Columbus. He said 
in part: "We feel that with you as our Moses, we will be enabled to march up 
out of our present heritage of commercial inactivity and bondage, through the 
sea of threatening financial dishonor, to the land of milk and honey, from which 
we were so unceremoniously ejected in 1892. Then we will have the smoke of 
our factories to lead us by day and the glare of our furnaces and foundries to 
guide us by night." (Applause. ) Conspicuous in this crowd was the Glee Club 
of the Columbus delegation, a large body of seventy-five well uniformed men. 
They marched well and their music was of a most pleasing character, far superior 
to that of ordinary campaign glee clubs. Aside from singing to the crowd in 
general, they delighted Mrs. McKixley and the other ladies in the house. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizexs: I give the Commercial Travelers' Associations of 
Toledo and Columbus, and other cities of this State and other States as-embled 
in Canton today, a sincere and hearty welcome. (Applause.) I count it a great 
distinction to have business men of your character leave their homes and their 
accustomed employments to bring assurances of good will and support in the 
pending campaign. You have discovered in the last fom- years that it is a good 
deal safer to consult markets than maxims. (Great laughter and applause.) 
You have discovered that prices current and actual experience in trade and 
commerce is a better guide to business prosperity than anything you can find 
in the text books. (Great laughter and cheering.) Your coming together. 
Democrats and Republicans, (a voice, 'No Democrats in this crowd.' and laughter 
and applause) once D8mocra4;s, (cries of 'That's more like it,' and laugliter) but 
now preferring country to party. (Cheers and cries of 'Right you are.') Com- 
ing together as you have, is an act of sterling patriotism, hitherto ^Iraost un- 
known in American politics, and promoted only by considerations for the public 
good. But these are characteristic traits of the business and of tlie commercial 
men of the country. I do not attribute your call to any personal concern for 
my success. You look beyond the candidate to the great principles he repre- 
sents, and upon that ground and in that spirit, you are here today, and in that 
same spirit I address you. No people in the country can be more inter- 
ested in the result of the election, two weeks from next Tuesday, tlian tlie com- 
mercial men of the United States. (Applause and cries of 'You are riglit.') 
What you want is business (gi*eat cheering and cries of 'That's right') foryiu 
have discovered that you can not sell if there is nobody to buy. (Applause.) 
You have suffered greatly the past three years under the withering touch of 
partial free trade and the instability of business, and above all. tlie absence of 
confidence. Shall these commercial men now embark in the vastly more dis- 

444 



astrous policy of free silver (cries of 'No,' 'Never') which is the party shibboleth, 
not of honor, but of dishonor ? A great many people find peculiar pleasure in 
the word 'free.' (Laughter and applause.) It is a grand, glorious word — when 
properly applied. (Laughter and applause.) I do not know what you may 
think about it, but I do not believe in destroying either the business or the 
property, or the credit of this country under the cry of 'free silver.' (Tremen- 
dous cheering and cries of 'Never,' 'Never.') We have just pride in our glorious 
record in favor of free speech, free soil, free press, free men, and free conscience 
— but I believe that the great majority of our countrymen are neither in favor 
of free trade, free silver, or free lawlessness (great applause and cries of 'No.' 
'No,' 'That's right') or of cheating people in the sacred name of freedom. The 
question of honest money against free silver and irredeemable paper money, 
both unlimited and both unsound, has been so thoroughly argued that I do not 
wish to occupy your time in discussing it Suffice it to say that no valid or suf- 
ficient reason has yet been given, or can be given for the United States adopt- 
ing either. Some things are so plain, some things are so clear and distinct; 
some things are so palpable and self-evident that, like day and night, every 
man must sooner or later recognize them. If human experience has proven 
anything, it is that no nation was ever benefited by poor money, or injured by 
good money. (Applause and cries of 'That's right') and that no man ever 
suffered from being honest, and no man ever profited by being dishonest. 
(Great cheering and cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') Good honest dollars hurt nobody. 
If we have not as much good money as we ought to have, let us get more, and 
we will get more whenever the country requires it. But we will not get it as 
long as we are proposing to adopt the financial policy of China or Mexico. (Ap- 
plaurJe and cries of 'No, we never will.') Give business confidence a chance to 
be restored. Startour mills, factories, mines and quarries ; restore good prices. ; 
good home markets for our farmers ; good wages for our workingmen ; and then, 
if the law of supply and demand requires it, coin honest dollars, good one hun- 
dred cent dollars, which wiU speedily come to the uses of the people. (Pro- 
longed cheering.) What we want in this country is more work (applause and 
cries of 'Yes, Yes,' and 'That's right') and better wages. (Cries of 'That's 
right,' and applause.) Whether we are selling goods or making them ; whether 
we are carrying them along our lakes or on our great railroad lines ; whatever 
may be our business, this is the cry of humanity today — for more work and bet- 
ter business. (Great applause.) The issue of the campaign, aside from free 
silver, is the tariff; that is to say whether we shall raise enough revenue to pay 
the current expenses of our Government, instead of borrowing money for that 
purpose ; whether we shall do our work at home or have somebody else do it 
for us, under another flag. (Renewed cheers.) Shall we make the duties high 
enough on foreign goods, the like of which we produce at home, to protect the 
labor of the United States against the underpaid labor of other countries? (Cries 
of 'Yes,' 'Yes,' and applause.) Or continue the duties as at present, and leave 
tens of thousands of laborers out of employment and a daily deficiency in the 
the National Treasury ? I believe in restoring a protective policy, a wise and" 
just policy, protective to all our interests, and adequate for all the expenses of 
the Government. Then we must re-enact the reciprocity policy of Blaixk, 
(applause) and Harrison (applause and cries of 'Right,' and 'Good,' 'Good') 
the policy of the tariff law of 189*0, by which our farmers find increased markets 
for their surplus products in those countries where they can be exchanged to 
the best advantage for the products which we do not grow, or produce, but 
which we must have. This is the platform of the Republican Party today. (A 

445 



voice, 'It's all right, too.') It is an American platform from top to bottom. 
(Cheering and cries of 'That's right,' and 'That's' what it is.') It represents the 
highest industries of this great free Republic. It acknowledges no Hag but the 
glorious Stars and Stripes and will maintain the National honor as it would 
maintain that sacred emblem of our Nationality." (Three rousing cheers.) 

COLLEGE STUDENTS' GREETING. 

A special train of twelve coaches came to Canton from Columbus and was 
packed with students from the Ohio State University, Ohio Medical College and 
Starling Medical College. Colors of the various colleges were borne on pennants 
and waved in triumph by the 300 zealous students. They were accompanied by 
the Ohio State University Band. The Young Men's Sound ]\£oney Club of 
Canton acted as escort. A special Fort Wayne train of ten coaches brought tlio 
delegation from Delaware and Westerville. There were about six hundred in 
the part J headed by the Delaware Drum Corps. The Ohio Wesleyan University 
students, numbering three hundred, headed the delegation, making a magnifi- 
cent appearance. The Delaware Band came with them. The "Westerville Old 
Men's McKinley Club and the Delaware citizens with many banners, also 
made a fine appearance. There were one hundred and twenty-five people in 
the Old Men's Club, the youngest of whom was fifty with several over eighty 
years of age. A delegation of five hundred residents of small villages along the 
Cleveland, Canton and Southern Railroad, between Kent and Cleveland, were 
united in parade with the Central Ohio people and addressed at the same time. 

Rev. D. W. Downey spoke for the old people. H. S. Culver for the Dela- 
ware students and citizens, Dr. C. M. Taylor for the students of tlK' ()!>.io Med- 
ical College, A. L. Cope for the other medical students, and W. C. Rogers 
for Breeksville and other towns along the Southern road. 

riajar flcKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizexs: There are so many Republicans this year (laughter 
and applause) that we are compelled now and then by force of circumstances to 
consolidate them into one great mass. Here in this audience, as you have 
already heard from their spokesmen, are the old people of "Westerville, the 
students of Ohio "Wesleyan University of Delaware, the great Ohio State 
University, Ohio Medical College, Starling Medical College, citizens of Delaware 
county towns, and the people without respect to profession from Breeksville 
.and adjoining townships and villages. I bid you all hearty welcome. You 
have a common sentiinent in your hearts and a common purpose, which you 
mean to execute on the third day of November. (Tremendous applause.) If 
there was anything needed to dispel that false and dangerous doctrine which 
some people are now teaching, it is dispelled here today — a doctrine that 
would make classes and then array class against class and one section of our 
country against the other. (Cheers.) We have had here today men from 
more than a dozen States — wage earners, miners, mill workmen, farmers, 
professional men, commercial travelers, old folks and young folks, college bred 
men, and men from the common schools and men of every profession and 
walk in life. This great day demonstrates that this is a Nation, not of classes, 
but of equal and honorable citizenship under one Constitution and a free Gov- 
ernment. (Prolonged cheering.) I am glad to see you all. I am glad to know 
that the students of the schools and universities are enrolled in our ranks. 

446 



(College yells and applause.) The newspapers of the country tell us that in 
the great colleges of the East as well as in those of the West, teachers and 
pupils, have enlisted under the banner of the Republican Party in greater num- 
bers than ever before. (Great applause.) They stand for country and conscience, 
for public honor and morals and for the supremacy of law. We will settle for 
all time this year that this is a Government by law, and a Government that 
rests upon law made by its own equal citizens. (Great applause and cries of 
'Good,' 'Good.') I thank all of you for this call, but must ask you to excuse me 
from talking longer, that I may speak to another delegation that comes to give 
its assurances of devotion to our cause, which is the cause of home and country, 
both yours and mine." (Applause and continuous cheers.) 

AN ADDRESS TO OLD FRIE.ND5. 

Major MoKixley's next address was in response to a speech made by Or- 
LAND Wilcox, when introducing a delegation of a thousand people from the 
city of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I feel that when I speak to you I am speaking to 
my old friends. (Cries of 'Eight you are.') You are not only my old friends, 
but my old constituents, who, years ago, assisted in sending me to the National 
House of Representatives. (A voice, 'We'll send you to the White House, 
now,' followed by great c^ieering.) You were loyal and devoted to Republican 
principles then, and I am glad to know that you are equally loyal and devoted 
to them in 1896. (Applau&^e.) What will Ohio do this year? (Cries of 'Give 
you 150,000 majority.') I am very sure that Summit county will contribute its 
share towards giving us an unprecedented majority. (Applause and cries of 
'Right.') Now, my friends, other delegations are awaiting me and I know 
you will excuse me from further speech, but I beg that you will carry back to 
your people, who could not accompany you today, my hearty good wishes.'' 
(Great applause.) 

AN AUDIENCE OF KENTUCKIANS. 

There were seven train loads of Kentuckians, numbering between 4,000 and 
5,000 people, from LouisviHe and Central Kentucky, who arrived about noon. 
A\'ith them came the Garfield Club, organized in 1882, employes of the -Louis- 
ville and Nashville Railroad, several sound money clubs and thousands of un- 
organized citizens. As they marched up North Market street the bands played 
"My Old Kentucky Home," the marchers cheered and shouted, and their 
cheers and shouts were answered by the spectators along the streets and side- 
walks. Lieutenant Governor Wortiiingtox spoke for the delegation in general, 
and said in part : 

"Major McKixley: We greet you as the chieftain under whose banner we 
shall triumph over the enemies of American labor, the enemies of sound money 
and of good government and social order. AVe come from that beautiful land, 
the home of the immortal Clay, in whose generous soil he sowed liberally the 
seeds of Americanism. Those seeds have germinated, they have taken root and 
in November will bring forth fruit which will gladden the hearts of the unem- 
ployed millions of laborers in America. (Applause.) Allow me to assure you 
of the high esteem in which you are held by the citizens of the State which we 

447 



have the honor to represent, regardless of party affiliations, as one in whose 
hands the destiny and welfare of this grand Republic may be entrusted without 
fear of harm. Furthermore, when the vote is counted in November, you will 
have gratifying evidence that your friends are not all north of Mason and 
Dixon's line." (Applause.) 

Col. H. S. ConN, editor of the Daily Anzeiger, spoke for the German-Ameri- 
can citizens of Kentucky. The railroad men, many of them colored people, and 
organized as a sound money club of the Louisville and Nashville road, were 
given a separate audience, and Major McKixley addressed them in response to 

an introduction by F. M. Burgett. 

•■■"^qi;fr.TT..-— 

'■■>.'.' "-'i'iiiiHA' . , 

Major ricKinley's Response. "-f^'^^^j^'U-' 

"My Fellow Citizens: I can not find w^ords to fitly express my appre- 
ciation of the generous message which your spokesman has brought me, as I 
welcome you all from your 'Old Kentucky Home.' (Tremendous cheering.) I 
address you not as Republicans nor as Democrats, but as countrymen and 
friends. (Renewed cheering and cries of 'That's what we are.') Your glorious 
old State has already registered a verdict in favor of one of the principal issues 
involved in this campaign. I do not believe that in the past twelve months the 
Kentucky people have changed tlieir opinions on the questions of honest money 
and public honor. (Great applause and cries of 'No,' 'No.') Kentucky has 
usually b?en a Democratic State and in 1876, gave that sturdy Democratic 
statesman, Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, an unprecedented popular majority 
for President. His memory is doubtless revered by many of your Democrats 
today and I venture to send by you this message to them in Mr. Tilden's own 
words. In his celebrated joint debate with Horace Greeley in 1840, he said: 
'An unstable currency produces instability of prices and is peculiarly injuriouf. 
to th'e. farmer. (Cries of 'That's right.') He ought not to be subject to the 
tremendous agency of an unseen cause, which may disappoint his wisest calcu- 
lations and overwlislm him in constant ruin, but he ought to be secured in the 
tranquility of his fireside from the curse of an unstable and conflicting cur- 
rency.' (Applause.) These were wise and honest words then; they are true 
and honest words now, and commend themselves to the careful consideration of 
every citizen in the land who would be spared further distress. He should 
allow chis counsel to guide him at the approaching National election. Another 
issue, my fellow citizens, in this campaign is the tariff. (Applause and cries of 
'That's the stuff.') That is to say, whether we shall raise sufficient revenue to 
pay the current expenses of the Government, instead of borrowing money for 
that purpose, and whether we shall do our work at home or have it done abroad. 
(Great applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.' J Shall we place duties high enough 
on foreign goods to protect our labor (cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes') against the cheaper 
labor of the old world and build up the magnificent industries of the United 
States ? (Great applause.) I do not know, my fellow citizens, when it will be 
possible to bring back the prices of 1892. That is only conjectural. The first 
step that I see towards accomplishing this purpose is to restore that great 
.National policy which your own great citizen, Henry Clay, so well maintained ; 
a policy that would encourage and promote American development, build up 
-Vinerican industries and employ American labor. Great applause and cries of 
•ilight,' 'Right.') T am glad to meet you all today. (Cries of 'We are glad to 
be here.') It pleased me to hear tlie generous words of your venerable 
Lieutenant Governor. I was pleased to hear those splendid sentences, filled with 

448 



patriotism, which must have thrilled every heart, from your German editor and 
my comrade, vrho puts the flag of his country and the interests of his country 
above that of any political organization. (Tremendous cheering.) This is the 
hour and the era for the exhibition of the highest patriotism. (Applause.) We 
have put the past behind us. We know no North, no South, no East, no West, 
but a perpetual Union of indestructible States. (Enthusiastic applause and 
cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') I welcome the men of the South as allies in 
this great conflict for National honor. Let us give notice to all the world that 
there are no longer any sectional lines to divide us (great applause) and that 
we have but one flag — the glorious old Stars and Stripes, (great cheering) the 
same our grandsires bore upon many a field. When we stand for that flag, we 
stand by all that it represents, by National integrity, financial honor, the 
supremacy of Government by law, and the sacredness of the Federal Judiciary, 
which is our anchor of safety, in every hour of trouble. (Great applause and 
cries of 'McKinley is all right.') I thank you, my fellow citizens, for the com- 
pliment you have paid me by your call and bid you good afternoon." (Great 
applause.) 

KENTUCKY RAILWAY CLUBS. 

Major McKinley's special address to the Kentucky Railway Sound Money 
Clubs was greatly appreciated by the immense body of men who cheered it to 
the echo. 

-^ .,,,,,._ Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens: I cannot refrain from expressing the deep obliga- 
tion I feel to the employes of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company 
for their call and generous assurances of support. (Applause.) Nothing gives me 
greater honor ; nothing brings to me higher distinction ; nothing increases my 
gratitude so much as to feel that I have the warm, earnest, sincere support of the 
men who toil. (Great applause and cries of 'You will have ours.') Labor is at 
the foundation of all our wealth and prosperity. You might open up every mint 
of the world and coin the silver of all creation, but it would not produce the 
prosperity that the labor of the United States would produce had it an oppor- 
tunity to work. (Great cheering.) What we want in this country, my fellow 
citizens, is constant employment. (Applause and cries of 'Correct,' and 'That's 
the stuff.') You get that when the country is prosperous. (Cries of 'Correct,' 
'Correct.') We do not get it when the business of the country is depressed. 
(Cries of 'No,' 'No.') What we want to do now, irrespective of party, is to 
adopt an industrial policy which will set every wheel in motion (applause) and 
light the fires in every factory of the land (renewed applause) and then the em- 
ployes of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and the New York Central, and 
of every other railroad, will have all they can haul and all the work they can do. 
(Great applause and cries of 'That's right.') And now thanking, you as I do 
most sincerely for the gi-acious compliment you have paid me, I bid you 
good bye." (Great cheering.) 

WEST VIRGINIANS IN LINE. 

The West Virginians, who came to Canton on Saturday, October 17th, made 
a very striking demonstration. There were over 3,000 of them, representing 
counties in the eastern, western and central sections of the State. They were 
very sanguine of success not only in the Nation but in their own State and in 

449 



public speech and in private conversation declared that West Virginia would give 
an emphatic verdict against free silver. Hon. Stewart Reed, Secretary of State 
was the spokesman of the party. He said the Monongahela Valley was earnest 
in its desire for a return to the policies under which the country had enjoyed 
prosperity. The people had heard he said of the "crown of thorns and 
cross of gold" on which the common people of the country were crucified 
but they knew only too well that "the common people of West Virginia had 
been crucified on a cross of free lumber and has been buried in a shroud of free 
wool". (Applause.) W. P. Orum, one of their number spoke eloquently for the 
many colored men in the delegation. He said the colored race had full confi- 
dence in Major McKinley and that 999 out of every 1,000 would support him 
with their votes 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens: I do not know how many delegations I have ad- 
dressed today, but they have been coming since eight o'clock this morning and 
still others are waiting to be presented. (Great laughter and applause.) This 
is the year when people all want to vote. (Cries of 'You bet they do.') They 
are ready now to vote. (Cries of ' We are, anyhow,' followed by gi-eat ap- 
plause.) They know on which side they mean to vote. (Cries of ' For McKin- 
LEY.') And they know the party ticket they intend to vote.' (Cries of 'The Ke- 
publican ticket.') Why do they want to vote that ticket this year? Because 
they believe involved in a Eepublican triumph is public confidence and the res- 
toration of better times. (Great applause and cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') They 
have had some experience in the last three and a half years and that experience 
has been most costly. (Cries of 'Right,' 'Right.') Not a single interest in the 
country but what has suffered. The Government has suffered in its revenues 
and the people in their wages and the prices of their products. (Cries of 'Right,' 
'Right.') In fact, everything has suffered but the glorious principles of the 
Republican Party. (Great cheering.) Protection, honest money, public 
morals, reciprocity, the National honor, the public credit, are all emblazoned 
on the banner of Republicanism this year, and rallying around that standard 
are men of all parties (cries of 'That's right') all races, all sections, all creeds. 
The white man, the black man, the wage earner and the employer, the profes- 
sional man and the business man, all have united and stand upon a common 
platform, which platform is for our country and its honor. (Great applause and 
cries of 'Right you are.') This assurance gratifies my heart. (A voice, '(Uirs 
too,' followed by tremendous cheering. ) It gratifies the heart of every lover of 
his country, (applause) but what I started to say was that tliere are ten thou- 
sand witnesses here today of your pledge that AVest Virginia will be found this 
year in the Republican column. (Cries of 'We'll put her there and don't you 
forget it.') Well, we intend to watch West Virginia, to see whether the prom- 
ise here made will be kept. (Cries of 'We'll do it. Major.') And now, my fel- 
low citizens, having said this much, and thanking you for your kind attention, I 
wish for you all a safe return and that returning prosperity may bless you in 
your homes. (Great cheering.) 

COLUriBUS RAILWAY Cl-UB. 

In all the campaign there were no livelier and no more enthusiastic demonstra- 
tion than that made by between two thousand and three thousand railroad p-- 
ployes who journeyed from Columbus, Ohio. While Major McKinley was talk- 

450 



ing they constantly inteiTuptPd him with such calls as ' Vote for McKinley,' 
'Good times will come with McKinley's election,' 'We're goings to make it 
unanimous,' and similar expressions. These did not come from two or three 
men scattered here and there, but would start in one corner of the crowd 
and be taken up in another until they passed all around the staiid, the whole 
body uniting in deafening applause at the sentiments expressed. "When one 
of the speakers stated that there had been charges of coercion in connection 
with the visits of railroad men to Canton, the whole crowd seemingly in one 
great voice broke out in loud and vociferous cries of ' It is not so.' The delega- 
tion was united with the employes of the Michigan Central railroad, and with 
the Erie Eailroad Club of Cleveland, there being over 3,000 men in the audi- 
ence. Major John E. Terryll insured the Wolverine State to the Republicans 
by 40,000 plurality. The men called out that the promise would be kept. A. 
H. Brown spoke for the Sound Money Club of the Michigan Central, C. C. Co- 
mer tor Columbus and Willard Kells for tke Erie employes of Cleveland. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens : I can not express to you in suitable words the 
honor I feel at receiving this visit from the employes of the railroads entering 
the city of Columbus, from the employes of the Michigan Railway Company, 
and of the Erie system entering Cleveland. (Great applause.) I give you 
hospitable gi-eeting. You are here from Michigan, Ohio and Northern Indiana, 
to testify your devotion, not to me as an individual, but to the great cause of 
public honor and of sound currency, with which to transact our business. 
(Great applause.) There is not a workingman in this audience who would not 
rather work for a good road than a poor one ; and there is not an employe in 
this great audience but would not rather be paid in good money than in poor 
money. (Applause and cries of 'We want good money.') What you want first 
and above all else is employment. (Great applause and cries of 'That's correct.') 
What you want is to get on the pay-roll of a good railroad com- 
pany and you have to get on the pay-roll before you can 
get anything out of the pay-car, to which one of your spokesmen has 
alluded. (Great cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') But 
in order to get on that pay-roll the railroads must first have business. You 
know when business is poor with the railroads, some of you are stricken from 
the pay-roll. (Cries of 'That's right.') You have experienced that in thekist 
three years and a half. (Cries of 'You bet we have.') What you are interested 
in, therefore, is the general prosperity of the country. We want every factorr 
in the land to be at work. (Cheers.) We want every mine in the country to be 
busy. (A voice, 'Not the silver mines,' fallowed by great laughter and applause. ) 
My friend says 'not silver mines.' (Renewed laughter.) We are willing that 
our silver mines shall be busy. I hope every one of them will be busy, but if 
they were all put to work and every mint was at woi-k, they would not furnish 
employment for one-third of the idle men in this country who earn their living 
by toil. (Cries of 'No, 'No,' they wouldn't. ';> You have to get your employment 
in the great active, busy industries of the country. This is where you get 
your work and your wages, and when these great Mves of industry are at work, 
your railroads have plenty of traffic. (Great applause and cries 'That's right.') 
When your raih'oads have plenty of traffic, you have constant and steady em- 
ployment at good wages. Is not that so? (Cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') Now, how 
are you to get back that prosperity you once enjoyed ? (Cries of 'By voting the 

i 451 



Republican ticket.') Some people say that the way to get it back is to debase 
the money of the country. Do you think that is right? (Cries of 'No,' and 
*\Ve do not.') Some people seem to think that the way to get back pros- 
perity is to strike a deadly blow at the capital of the country. Is that 
the way to do it? (Cries of 'No,' 'No.') Some people seem to think 
that the way to put men to work is to despoil the profits of the men 
who employ labor. Is that the way to get work? (Loud cries of 'No,' 'No.') 
Capital and labor are interdependent. (Cries of 'That's right.') They are not 
enemies. They are friends or should be friends. (Applause and renewed cries 
of 'Right.') Capital wants to make profit and when capital goes into enterprises 
it must necessarily employ labor, and when it has employed labor, men have em- 
ployment. Is not that right? (Cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') Y"ou can not start a railroad 
without money. (A voice 'And sound money at that,' followed by great laughter 
and applause.) Y'es, sound money at that. I read a statement the other day 
from a president of one of the great railroads of the country that there were 
90,000 railroad men thrown out of employment in the past three years, and that 
there were 50,000 cars lying idle between New York, Chicago and St. Louis. 
What does that mean — that the railroads want to keep them idle? No, it is 
because they have no traffic. Why have they no traffic to employ them ? (Cries 
of 'Democratic times.') Because confidence has been destroyed and the wheels 
of industry have been stopped, and men are w^aiting with anxiety and appre- 
hension lest the further confidence and credit of the country are to be shaken 
and destroyed. What we want in this country is the return of good times, Do 
you think good times will come by an attempt to repudiate the debts of this 
Government, public and private? (Ci'ies of 'No,' 'No.') Would not that still 
bring greater distrust in the country? (Cries of 'Yes.') lam glad to meet 
Democrats and Republicans marching this year under the same banner upon 
which is emblazoned, honest money, good wages, public honor and law and 
order. (Tremendous cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') My friends, 
I thank you for this call. It is an inspiration to the cause for wiiich we con- 
tend, and nothing could give me more gratification than to carry the flag of 
victory, meaning, as we know it does, that the honor and integrity of this 
Government shall be sustained and its credit and currency upheld. (Great 
cheering.) I thank you all and bid you good-bye." (Renewed cheers.) 

WALKER MANUFACTURING COMPANY'S EMPLOYES. 

D. A. Pare introduced a very enthusiastic party of 8(X) Cleveland working- 
men representing the Walker Manufacturing Company. Great laughter 
was created during this demonstration when Major McKinley referred to the 
opponents and some one in the crowd called out "They cut no ice." 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens of the Walker Company: You have done me a great 
honor in paying me this visit. I appreciate it and wish that I might say some 
words to you worthy of the occasion, and which might be well suited to what is 
the subject of inquiry in your minds. There is no conflict— natural conflict, 
between the men who work and the men who employ them. (Great applause.) 
Capital can not get on without labor (applause) and labor can not get on 
without capital. (Cries of 'That's right' and 'That is true.') The former em- 
ploys the latter and the latter gives service to the former. Y''ou can not get 
capital to invest in anything unless there is a fair assurance of profit. There is 

452 



not a woikingman before me today who has his savings, whether a hundred or a 
thousand dollars — (a voice* We have had no savings in the last foui years') — 
my friend says that the workingmen have had no savings in the last four years, 
well , before that time there was not a laboring man who had a hundred dollars 
of savings who would loan it out unless he was certain he could get it back with 
interest. Isn't that true? (Cries of 'Yes/ 'Yes.') And there was not a man 
who had a hundred thousand dollars that would put the money out and invest 
it in a manufacturing business unless he thought he was going to get a profit. 
Isn't that true? (Cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes,' and 'That's true.') That's just what you 
woulddo, isn't it? (Cries of 'Yes.') That's what every sensible and prudent man 
would do. Instead of getting up these artificial differences between labor and 
capital, we want to bring them closer together. (Great applause and cries of 
'Good,' 'Good.') Now if capitalists think there is a profit in investment in such a 
company as yours, they will establish a plant, and when they have established 
their plant they must have labor, must they not? And when they employ labor, 
they have to pay wages. If that business ceases to be profitable, they will stop. 
And when they stop, wages will stop. Now what we want in this country is a 
policy that will encourage the investment of all the money possible in indus- 
tries that give employment to labor. (Great applause and cries of 'That's 
right' and 'That's coi;i'ect.') We must protect those industries by — (a voice, 
'Putting McKixLEY in,' followed by great applause and laughter) we must pro- 
tect those industries by an adequate tariff against the productions of other lands 
and people. (Continued cheering.) Now, when we once get prosperity (cries 
of 'We will have it') we do not want cheap money. (Great cheering and cries 
of 'No,' 'No,' 'Never.') When you have given an honest day's work to your em- 
ployer you want to be paid in good, honest one hundred cent dollars, which you 
can keep at home without fear that they will depreciate ; or that yor can send 
to your friends on the other side of the ocean and know they will not have 
to stand a discount. This is the kind of money we have today, and have had 
since 1879, and I think are bound to keep. (Cries of 'You bet we will' and great 
cheering.) But this is the kind of money that is being assaulted today by our 
political opponents. (A voice 'They don't cut any ice' foUowed by great lanorh- 
ter and applause.) They want to substitute for our good one hundred cenc dol- 
lar, a fifty-two cent dollar. Supposing we had a fifty-two cent dollar, 
do you think your wages would increase? (Cries of 'No,' 'No.') 
Don't you know from experience that the poorest money that passes 
current by law always finds its place in the hands of the poorest people, 
and that when the crash comes they feel it most? (Continuous cheering.) And 
haven't you learned another thing — that labor is always the last to rise and the 
slowest to rise when we enter upon an inflated and disturbed currency? (Re- 
newed cheers.) I thank you for this call. I have already addressed eighteen 
or twenty delegations today. The presence of this large assemblage of work- 
ingmen from the neighboring city of Cleveland from works that I have passed a 
thousand times. (A voice, 'Come in some time.') I would be glad to come in 
some time— but I will have to bid you good night now." (Three cheers, 
were then given for MoKinley.) 

AN ENTHUSIASTIC CROWD FROH HARYLAND. 

One of the early trains of Saturday, October 17th, was filled with Maryland- 
ers and so was one of the late ones. There were five trains in all and the dele- 
gation numbered fully 3,000 people. Nearly all of these were wage earners and 

453 



the majority of thorn belonged to the Anti-Wilson Bill Society, of Baltimore. 
They were well sa[)plied with bands and drum corps and vocalists and the good 
old air of "Maryland, My Maryland" was used unstintingiy for marching music 
a!id as a cranpaign tune. Each of the speakers, and there were a number of 
them, declared in terms must emphatic that the Republican victory of 1895 
would be emphasized in 1896, and in personal interviews they were equally as san- 
guine. The general introduction was made by M. J.Talbert. William Oliver 
Smith, its organizer, spoke for the Anti-Wilson Bill Society and enlarged upon 
the distress that measure had brought to the wage earners of Baltimore. Albert 
J. CcLLisoN introduced the potters. AVilliam O. Peach spoke for the employes 
of the Transportation Company. The Bennett Pottery Company, through F. 
B. HiGGixBOTTOM, presented Major McKinley a medallion of himself. The cigar 
makers sent a large cigar with campaign adornments and put up in very fancy 
style. It was during this demonstration that the worst crush of the day oc- 
curred. 31a jor [McKi-Vley had several times passed through the crowd to and 
from the house, and in doing so nearly had his clothes torn from his back by the 
thousands eagerly waiting opportunity to shake hands with him. There had 
been ])ushing and crowding against the wooden fence until several panels were 
broken down. A step at the porch had broken and several people had been 
slightly .suffocated by the surging of the great mass of humanity. But tlie dan- 
ger point was not reached till the Maryland demonstration began. This party 
had a large committee and a number of speakers. Committees and spealters 
for other delegations were crowding upon the stand till it was completely rilled. 
The little structure began to sway under a weight which it was never intended 
to sustain, and those who saw the swaying became alarmed. The officers of the 
law finally lessened th- load, but found it a difficult task, being obliged to 
resort to very decisive action because the people did not appreciate the situa- 
tion. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

'■ My Fellow Citizens: It is an unusual honor to any candidate, or cause, 
to have three thousand wage earners travel a thousand miles to testify to him 
their devotion and loyalty, and I appreciate more than I can find words to ex- 
press the presence here, in Canton, of the potters and wage earners of the Mt. 
Yernon mills, the wage earners of the transportation companies, the sound 
money clubs and the employes of the ironworks and shipyards, who have gather- 
ed about my home this evening. Maryland is one of the most promising States 
in the American Union. (Applause and cries of 'That's right.') She needs but the 
reviving touch of manufactories ; she needs but that magic touch that will start 
every industry and every enterprise into active operation to give employment 
to the wage earners of Baltimore and the State. Nothing in all this campaign 
has given me so much pleasure and satisfaction as the knowledge that the wage 
earners of this country are for the most part enlisted in the cause for which we 
stand. (Prolonged cheering.) I know something of the workingmen of the 
United States. I know something of the potters. (Great applause from the 
potters.) I know something of the wage eai-ners in the great cotton and 
woolen mills, and that all they want is an opportunity to work ; and to do this 
all they ask is protection from the products of other lands made by under-paid 
labor. (Tremendous applause.) This, my fellow citizens, you can regulate by 
your own ballots. (Cries of we 'Will do it,' and applause.) Petitions, as one of 
your spokesmen has already said, may count for naught. Protests to the Ameri- 
can Congress may count for naught, but the time when the citizen's voice counts 

454 



most is on that supreme occasion— on election day. What you want to do is to 
elect a Congress that represents your views ; then you wont need to resort to 
petitions to regulate them or to keep them from injuring your industries. 
(Renewed cheers.) Let the voice of Maryland this year resound as her voice 
did last year (enthusiastic cheering and cries of 'AVe will') for honest money and 
protection. The tariff question is a question wholly of labor. We will manu- 
facture with the world, if the rest of the world will pay as good wages as were 
paid in the United States. But as long as they do not, patrii-tism, genuine 
Americanism, and every industrial interest, demands that w^e should make our 
tariff high enough to measure the difference between the low cost of labor in 
foreign countries and the cost of labor in this. (Cheers.) Then, you are inter- 
ested in honest money. You don't want any short dollars. (Cries of 'No,' 'No,' 
and applause.) You have tried short hours in the last four years and haven't 
liked them. (Laughter and applause and cries of 'You bet we don't.') When 
you give a full day's work to your employer, you want to be paid in full un- 
questioned and unalterable dollars. (Great applause.) This is the kind we 
have now, and the kind we propose to continue if the American people sustain 
us this year. (Applause and cries of 'We'll do it, all right.') I thank you for 
the kindness of this visit. I thank your spokesmen, every one of them, for the 
generous and assuring words they bring to me. I wish for all of you a safe 
return to your homes and in all the years of the future, happiness, content- 
ment and prosperity." (Vociferous cheering.) 

TWO CLEVELAND CLUBS. 

A delegation from Cleveland, composed of citizens from the Twelfth and 
Fourteenth wards, the Republican Clubs of these w'ards, the employes of the 
Cleveland Twist Drill Company and the Bishop and Babcock Company, was 
given audience shortly after 6 o'clock Saturday evening, October 17th. The 
party numbered about eight hundred people, who cheered wildly as Major 
McKiNLEY appeared. Hon. James H. Hott* presented the delegation. 

flajor ricKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Hoyt and My Fellow Citizens: Nothing could have been more pleas- 
ing to me than the selection you made for your spokesman tonight, my young 
and honored friend, Hon. James H. Hoyt. (A voice 'He's all right,' and ap- 
plause.) No personal tribute could have been paid to me by any one which 
would have brought me more pleasure. I am glad to have you visit me at 
Canton for I have often visited you in Cleveland. You have come from no idle 
curiosity ; not to pay personal compliments to me, but because you are interested 
in the cause which lies at the foundation of our individual and National pros- 
perity. (Great applause.) You love your country. (Prolonged cheering and 
cries of 'That's what we do.') You are all patriots. You know that there is no 
government under the sun like the United States of America. (Applause.) It 
is the best Government in this wide, wide world, and if it does not continue to 
be the best, it will not be because you do not use your ballots aright. (Great 
applause and cries of 'It won't be our fault.' ) My fellow citizens, I have spoken 
many times today and, if I read your banners correctly, it is very evident to me 
yovi do not need any further argument. (Laughter and applause.) You have 
settled on your majority. (Cheers and laughter.) You have made up your 
minds. (Cries of 'That's right.') You know, every one of you, how you intend 
to vote on the third day of November. (Applause and cries of 'We will vote for 

455 



McKiNLEY.') You are going to vote for that party whose principles you believe 
put into practical administration, will bring to your home and tiresides the 
greatest happiness and prosperity. I thank you from the bottom of my heart 
for this call. The Twelfth ward, the Fourteenth ward, the employes of the 
Bishop and Babcock Company and the employes of the Cleveland Twist Drill 
Company — all of you are welcome, thrice welcome to my home. Good night." 
(Three cheers.) 



GLOBE IRON W0RK5' EHPLOYES. 

The last delegation to which Major McKixley spoke, on .Saturday, October 
17th. was made up of the employes of the Globe Iron Works, of Cleveland, and 
numbered about four hundred men. The trip was planned by the workmen 
themselves and they were presented by Mr. H. C. AVilli.\ms, a workingman. 
He said that there would have been more in the delegation had not the free 
trade times struck them. "But," said he, "those before you, Major McKixlky, 
as well as the hundreds who remained at home, are with you heart and soui in 
your battle for protection, prosperity and sound money " 



riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : I am very grateful to you for the confideiice which 
your visit to me tonight implies. I wish that all you hope and expect from 
your ballots on the third day of November may be realized in your own lives, 
your employments and your wages. This is a country whose Government rests 
upon the consent of the people. Its people determine its policies, its Adminis- 
trations and its laws, and when they have tried an Administration or policy and 
have discovered that it does not subserve their best interests, their citizenship 
and their civilization, then they abandon it. You have tried a policy for the 
past three years and a half. You know the result better than I can tell you. I 
believe we should go back to a policy that encourages our people to do their 
vrork at home and encourages men engaged in shipbuilding like yourselves,, to 
build our own ships at home (great applause) with our own good raw materials, 
and our own skilled American labor. Then you want, in addition to employmenc, 
your wages to be paid in a currency that will always be good over night. A 
currency that won't change with the fluctuations of the market, but that 
will be worth a hundred cents every day of the year, good at home and where- 
ever trade goes, in every commercial center of the world. (Great cheering 
and cries of "Hear,' 'Hear.') I thank you for this call of good will and congrat- 
ulation and bid you all good night." (Great cheering.) 



A SEWICKLEY, PENNSYLVANIA, DELEGATION. 

Pennsylvan. a furnished the first delegation addressed by :\Iajor McKixley 
for the week begmning Octooer I9th The party, se.eral hundred in number, 
arrived over tne Pennsylvania railroad and the visitoi-s included a number of ladies 
escorted by the McKinley and Hobart Sound Money Club of Sewickloy. They 
greeted Major IMcKiN'LEv with hearty cheers when he appeared on the poich, 
and were happily introduced to him by Attorney George R. Walt,.\ce. 

456 



riajor ricKinley's Response, 

" Ladies AND Gentlemen : lam very much honored to receive this visit 
from my fellow citizens of a neighboring State and from a village so 
well known to me and so near to my own city. I am glad to have the 
assurance of your spokesman that in this crisis of our history you are stand- 
ing for National honor and for free institutions. (Applause.) The Repub- 
lican Party has always occupied a post of gi'eat honor. From the time of 
its organization down to the present moment it has been the leader of all 
that is best in the Government. It was born in the interest of liberty and 
for the rights of humanity. It has never struck a blow that has not been 
for freedom and for our glorious flag. And in every great emergency that 
party, not so old as some other parties in this country, has led for the right, for 
justice, for good morals, and for public honesty. It never held a higher post of 
honor than it has today. Glorious as the past has been, it never carried a flag 
which involved more to the institutions of our country and its good name than 
the flag which is carried today. (Applause.) I am glad to know that from one 
end of this country to the other the intelligence, judgment and consciences of 
the American people are not appealed to in vain. Some people seem to have 
the notion that the Republican Party has made a new departure ; that it occu- 
pies a different position from that which it occupied in the past. That is a mis- 
take. We stand where we have always stood (applause) not only upon the 
money question, but upon the tariff question. And I want to call your attention to 
what may have escaped you. When the war closed, the gi'eat problem before the 
Aanerican people, after the reconstruction of the Union, was what should be done 
with the great debt that had been caused by the war and what should be done 
by way of maintaining a sound currency in the United States. In 1868, the great 
soldier of the war, who had led the mightiest armies that ever engaged in 
sustaining a cause. General Ulysses S. Grant, (applause) was nominated for 
President. Let me read you two planks of the platform upon which he stood, 
and you can tlien see whether the Republican Party has changed its position : 
' We denounce all forms of repudiatSjn as a National crime, and the National 
honor requires the paying of the publ^J debt in the utmost good faith to all 
creditors at home and abroad, not only accoi'ding to the letter, but the spii'it of 
the law under which it was contracted.' That was when we had our enormous 
war debt of over two billions of dollars, and the country seemed to be staggering 
under it, but the Republican Party stood up, as it always has, and insisted that 
every dollar of that debt must be paid in the best currency of the world (cheers) 
and under that policy we have paid off more than two-thirds of that great 
National debt, and paid every dollar of it with honor and in the best currency. 
Then, let me read you another plank in that platform, which so well applies to 
our situation today: 'That the best podcy to diminish our burdens of debt is to 
so improve our credit that the capitalist will seek to loan us money at lower 
rates of interest than we now pay, and must continue to pay, so longas repudia- 
tion, partial or total, open or covert, is threatened or suspected.' (Applause.) 
This is the Republican way to restore confidence, and the way to get capital to 
invest at lower rates of interest is to give confidence to the business of the 
country, not by repudiating the debts of the country and by discrediting its 
currency, but by lifting up both credit and currency and thus commanding 
the confidence of the business world. (Renewed applause.) In that 
same year the Democratic National Convention that nominated Horatio 
Seymour for President had this utterance on the money question, which 

457 



was sound then and it is today, and I. comnu'nd it to all of you: 'One cur- 
rency for the Government and the people, tlie laborer, the officeholder, the pen- 
sioner and the soldier, the producer and the bondholder.' That's the kind of 
money we have today, my fellow citizens — just as good in the hands of the poox* 
as in the bands of the rich ; and we propose to pay the obligations of this (jov- 
ernment in the future just as in the past — in the best money of the world. 
(Applause.) I am glad to meet you at my home, and to see the ladies here 
this morning. It is a good omen when the women take an interest in our 
public affairs (laughter and applause) and I am sure they are just as much in- 
tei"ested in good government and good laws and good morals as the men can be, 
and their influence in this campaign on the side of right, I am sui-e, will be 
beneficial. I thank you and it will give me great pleasure to meet and greet 
you personally." (Great cheering.) 

THE nOQADORE McKINLEY CLUB. 

The afternoon train, on the Cleveland, Canton and Southern railroad, on 
Monday, October 19th, brought to Canton a party of Mogadore friend.^ and ad- 
mirers of Major McKinley, of whose coming no announcement had been made. 
They were cordially received upon the lawn, and were introduced by Kepresen- 
tative F. "W. Myers. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

" Mr. Myers, Ladies AND Gextlemen: It is always a pleasure to me to 
meet my neighbors and fellow citizens and former constituents. I i-ecall with 
great satisfaction the years when we were associated together in the same Con- 
gressional District, which, at the time, was regarded as adverse to our party, but 
which, by the splendid effort of Republicans in your county and elsewhere gave 
our cause a triumphant victory. (Applause.) I shall never forget the valued 
services rendered by the Republicans of Summit county in those two groat 
Congressional contests. I am glad to be assured by your spokesman that this 
year, as then, you are still faithful to the doctrines of the Republican Parly, 
and believe that there is involved in their triumph the happiness and prosper- 
ity of the people and the credit of the Government (Cheers.) All that your 
spokesman has said concerning the growth and prosperity of this great Repub- 
lic only emphasizes the value of free government and the ability of 
a free people to conduct their own affairs for their own interests and 
for their common welfare. We have made wonderful progress in 

the last thirty years, and we have made it under a policy, first, of 
a protective tariff, and second, upon a good, solid monetary system. 
(Applause.) Four years ago the policy of protection was decreed as 
not desirable for our people. Tliey have had three years and a half of experi- 
ence under the change, and I believe that they are i*eady to return to the old 
American doctrine of a protective tariff. (Applause.) And two weeks from to- 
morrow you will -have an opportunity to express your individual opinions upon 
that question. The other principal question is one of finance — whether this ppoi)le 
shall continue the use of the good dollars they now have, and which they have 
had since 1879, and which they secured under Republican legislation, or 
whether they shall turn away from them and adopt as the medium of ex- 
change a dollar that is worth less than one hundred cents. I do not believe the 
American citizens want a depreciated dollar. I believe they want, whether 
they are farmers, manufacturers, or laborers, a dollar that measures a hun- 

458 



dred cents, and is worth a hundred cents, not only at home, but wherever trade 
goes, in every commercial center of the world. (Cries of 'That's right' and 
cheers.) This year there is involved, also, in the controversy, a question of 
wliether we shall have public tranquility and whether law and order shall be 
supreme in the United States. I believe that the good people of Summit 
county can be relied upon to vote strongly on the third day of November in 
favor of a Government by law. (A voice, 'And we will vote for McKini<ey, too,' 
followed by applause and laughter.) And now, thanking you for the pleasure 
and honor of this call, and expressing a wish whicli I have that I may meet you 
all personally, I will conclude." (Three cheers were then given for "Governor 

McKlNLEY.") 

riAJOR n'KINLEY'5 BOYHOOD HOHE. 

Before the arrival of any delegations to be greeted formally by Major 
McKiNLEY, he was busy at his home shaking hands with visitors who were 
anxious to pay their respects individually, on Wednesday, October 2Ist. Many 
of the callers were of the Illinois delegation, and they with others kept up a 
constant stream on the street between the one Canton residence which has be- 
come familiar to the world, and tlie Public Square. The first formal delegation 
that called was from Poland, Ohio. This was the place where Major McKinley 
spent a part of his boyhood and where he received his academic education. Tlie 
visitors came in a special train of five coaches. They wei^e introduced by Judge 
George F. Arrel, who, during his youthful years, was a companion of Major 
McKiNLEY. He said that the party came to pay their respects to the Repub- 
lican standard bearer both as an acquaintance and as a candidate. "You went 
from our township not as a boy orator but as a boy soldier, and you returned to 
us after the strife ended. The question then was one of National existence. 
The question today is one of National honor," said the speaker. After their 
host had responded each of the visitors was accorded a personal greeting. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

" Judge Arrel and My Fellow Citizens: I do not know anything that has 
more deeply moved my feelings than these visitors from the home of my 
boyhood. Old Poland township is very near and dear to me. (Applause.) As 
Judge Arrel has said, I spent most of my boyhood with you. I entered tlie 
United States service from your township. The company to which I belonged 
was made up of the boys of Poland township, the boys living at Poland and at 
Lowellville and the country boys, as we called them. And I see you carry the 
same old starry banner that we carried then (cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' 
and applause) and for which you were willing to give, if necessary, your 
lives, to protect and defend. I returned to Poland at the close of the war and 
I'eceived my education as a law'yer in your township. I left it in 1867 and came 
to this city ; but there has never been a time that my heart has not gone back 
to that dear old township, with which are associated so many tender and sadi-ed 
memories ; and there never has been a moment since I left you that I have not 
felt and fully appreciated the fact thati had your good wishes, and your prayers ; 
and whenever I have stood for a public office I have always had your votes. 
(Applause and cries of 'You will have them again.') Not only the votes of all 
the Republicans but many of the Democrats who had been my friends and 
neighbors in boyliood. I remember that during the period of the war no ques- 
tion was asked as to whether a man was a Republican or a Democi-at. The simple 

459 



and only question was whether he was a patriot. And in this year 1896, when our 
country's honor is assailed, our currency attacked, and our courts threatened, 
the only question that is asked is: 'Ai-e you a patriot?' (Cries of 'Good,' 
'Good.' 'That's what we are,' and 'You're one. also.') This year as then, 
obliterating all party distinctions and differences and sectional lines, Democrats 
and Republicans are standing upon a common platform for the preservation of 
the honor of our country and for the supremacy of the public hiw. (Applause and 
cries of 'That's right.') You could not have selectedfor your spokesman one 
whose words would have given me more pleasui-e than those of Judge A rri:l. Be- 
longing to old Poland township, and for more than a year my room mate in rhecity 
of Albany, when we were studying law, lam glad to have him deliver your mes- 
sage. Poland township was the first township in which I voted after the war. 
I do not know how it is now, but in those days we voted at Poland Center. The 
electors who didn't have conveyances were in the habit of walking to the Center 
some three miles away. "NVe were interested enough in our country to make the 
principles of that war express our sentiments upon gi-eat questions, and that old 
township never, as I recall it, in all its history, turned its back upon the Re- 
publican Party. (Cries of 'Never,' 'Never,' and great applause.) As long as I 
have known anything about it, it was one of the banner townships of INIahoning 
county (Cries of 'And it is yet/ and 'You are right') and is yet. I am pleased 
to learn that this year it will give to the Republican cause, which embraces in 
my judgment so much of the country's good, a gi-eater majority than it ever 
gave before I am glad to meet you at my home. No delegation has received 
a heartier greeting. You are most welcome, you have had, my heart for lo, 
these many years. It will give me pleasure to meet and greet each of you 
personally" (Three enthusiastic cheers were then given.) 

FROM PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S HOME. 

One of the largest and most enthusiastic delegations, Wednesday, comprised 
citizens of the old Nineteenth District, including Mentor, the late residence of 
President Gaspield. The people came from Ashtabula, Lake, Geauga, Portage, 
Trumbull and Mahoning counties, which comprised the district, and were 
headed by the famous Garfield Club and the Fifth Regiment Band. Congi-ess- 
man Northway presented the delegation in a splendid manner, saying: 

"Major MoKinley: The Garfield Club of the old Nineteenth District of 
this State takes pleasure today in gi-eeting you. It rementbers with what 
hearty good will it entertained you at its last annual banquet at Painesville on 
the 19th of last November, and it will never forget your woixis of wisdom spok- 
en on that occasion It is not alone as a candidate for the highest office within 
the gift of the American people that we pay you our respects, but we come 
to greet you as a citizen who adds glory to the long lint of great citi- 
zens who have exalted our State and Nation. (, Applause.) This club organ- 
ized for the purpose of perpetuating the name and glory o'' ihat great man, 
James A. Garfield, would, in words of becoming modesty, commend you to your 
country as his worthy successor, and as one vvho by reason of his steaofast ad- 
herence to principle and good government is entitled to the highest *eat in 
the land that all the millions of our countrymen can assign him. (Applause, i 
On behalf of this club I greet you and commend you to that supreme wisdom, 
which will be needed in the performance of those duties which will be higher 
and greater than any you have yet performed." (Great applause.) 

460 



Major MoKinley's address was a feeling one and at its close he presented 
State Senator James R. Gakfield in these words : 

" My Fellow Citizens: I want to present to you the worthy son of your 
illustrious representative, General Garfield, in the person of your present, State 
Senator, Hon. James R. Garfield." (Prolonged cheering.) 

Senator Garfield acknowledged the compliment in a few sentences. He 
said : 

" My Fellow Citizens: I assure you that it is not befitting that any man 
should speak to this audience after the speech we have just heard. I simply 
wish to thank this grand body of citizens of the old Nineteenth District for 
the great loyalty and affection that you have always shown; and this year, al- 
though we are outside of its old confines, I can only declare that you are still 
inspired with the same devotion and loyalty for the grand truths of Republic- 
anism that have ever inspired the Western Reserve. (Great applause.) Fur- 
ther, that we will go forth on November third and cast more than the whole 
Republican vote for the man who stands nearest and dearest to all the American 
people. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and great cheering.) He represents no class, 
or section, and when he is President, as he surely will be, he will be President 
of all the United States. I thank you." (Tln-ee cheers.) 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

" Mr. NoKTHW AY And My Fellow Citizens: I am greatly honored today 
lay the Garfield Club and other citizens of the old Nineteenth Ohio District 
I understand that eligibility to membership in this club is that the citizen 
shall have voted for General Garfield for Congress. Under that rule, I am 
entitled to full membership with the rest of you. (Tremendous cheering.) 
The first vote I cast, after returning from the great Civil War, was a vote to 
send General Garfield back to the House of Representatives. (Applause and 
cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') Then, besides that, I was born on the Western Re- 
serve, it (Laughter and applause. ) I belong to you by every tie. (Cheers. ) But 
greater and stronger than all is the tie of devotion to a common country and 
the glorious old Stars and Sti'ipes. (A voice, 'We will stand together,' and 
great applause.) If wise counsels are required on any of the questions divid- 
ing the country this year, those counsels can be found in the teachings, the 
speeches and the writings of the distinguished man whose name yo i bear, 
<Three enthusiastic cheers.) Whether on the question of finance or of tariff, he 
illuminated both by his powerful mind and logic. I have studied, more or less, 
the public career of General Garfield. He was an inspiration to me as a boy ; 
he was my counselor and friend in manhood; and in studying liis career, 
if I -vas to single out any one great act more distinguished than any 
other, I would name his splendid defense of the public honor and National 
currency. (Great ajjplause.) To my mind the greatest speech he ever made, 
and I heard it, was in the Forty-fifth Congress when he was seeking to prevent 
the abandonment of the idea of the resumption of specie payments. He was 
then occupying perilous ground , there was great clamo. in the country over 
an inflation of the currency. General Garfield, fearing no consequences 
from his act and knowing that he was right, declared that there was but one 
thing to do, in honor, and that was to make every obligation of the National 
Government equal to the best dollars known to the commercial world. (Great 
applause.) He took the chances of an adverse verdict. He came back to hia 
proud old constituents, and they returned him by an increased majority. 

461 



(Renewed cheering.) He then appealed to that wider field— this great State— 
and it commended him by electing him to the United States Senate. Then, 
finally, he received the approval of fifty millions of people in his election to the 
Chief Executive office of the Government of the United States. (Cheers.) 
So, too, on that other great question of the tariff, he was sound. You will re- 
member his famods speech against the Wood bill, which sought to tear down and 
destroy American industries. He said in substance: 'Let Germany look 
after the interests of the German Empire; let England look after her welfare, 
but let the American people legislate for themselves.' (Great applause.) If 
he could speak to us today, he would tell us to stand by public honor, and 
never consent to corrupt, or degrade, the currency of the United States. (Pro- 
longed cheering.) He would tell us to protect American labor and develop- 
ment against the competition of the old world (applause) and that is what we 
propose to do this year. (Cries of 'You are right,' and 'That's what we will 
do.') We do not mean to lower our flag. (Cries of 'Never,' 'Never,' and great 
cheers.) Or to degrade that glorious banner of the free. (Cries of 'No, sir,' 
'Never.') lam glad to meet and greet you. This splendid body of citizens 
from the old Wade, Giddixgs and Garfield district (tremendous cheers) have 
helped more than any other equal population anywhere to glorify the pages of 
American history. (Applause.) You helped to make your mighty leaders 
great, for you stood steadily behind them and upheld them (applause and 
cries of 'We will do it again') and for your loyalty and devotion they brought 
you honor. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and applause.) I am glad to know that 
this grand old constituency, this year, is enrolled in the same glorious cause, 
and that you promise on the third day of November, one week from next Tues- 
day, to give to the Republican cause, to give to your country, to its honor, 
to public and private morals and National honesty, a larger majority timn you 
have ever given before." (Loud cries of 'We will do it,' 'You bet,' and great 
applause.) 

ILLINOIS DAY IN CANTON. 

The State of Illinois undertook to have a number of delegations meet in 
Canton, on Wednesday, October 21st, and unite in a single body for the purpose 
of making a call upon the Republican candidate for the Presidency. The 
forenoon was spent by the visitors in doing the city and many of 
them took the opportunity to make informal calls on Major McKinley and 
gi-asp his hand and assure him of their loyalty to him and to the cause he rep- 
resented. It was not until after three o'clock that the parade was ready to 
march. The delay was experienced by reason of the coming of otlier delega- 
tions from Poland and Warren, Ohio. The different Illinois delegations were 
organized in one magnificent body to march from the Tabernacle. They 
were escorted by Canton Troop and Escort Committee, reinforced by fifty 
"Black Horsemen" of Chicago. Major McKinley reviewed the parade from 
the stand on the front lawn, and then the crowd massed in the street. 
There was a selection by the AVeber Quartet, of Chicago, and then Gen. John 
McNuLTA spoke on behalf of the city of Chicago. Hon. W. J. Calhocn 
spoke for the State in general. He said: 

" Major McKinley : In behalf of these citizens here assembled, I beg leave 
to say we come from the great State of Illinois ; from tiie State that gave to the 
Union the immortal Lincoln (api)hiuse) the glory of whose life is ever shining 
in the skies as a rainbow of hope and promise for all those who love liberty and 
their f<?llow men. (Applause.) We come from the State that first gave to the 

462 



Kervice of the Union that incomparable soldier, General Grant, (applause^ who,, 
in our country's great struggle for National unity, led our armies to a glorious 
^victory and a triumphant peace. We come from a State whose history is rich 
with glorious memories of great men and great achievements, in peace and in 
war. We come from a State with proud cities by lake and river, with broad 
prairies of fertile fields and farms ; from a State rich in agricultural products, 
with gi-eat manufacturing and mining interests and with commercial interests 
that reach every other state in the Union and extend all around tne world - 
from a, State, the lives of whose people exhibit such a variety of industrial pur- 
suits, such activity along so many lines of social development, as to typify, in 
a large degree, that spirit of National independence and advancement which 
the Republican Party has always sought to infuse into the life of the whole 
Nation. The people of this country are divided into two political parties. We 
are in the midst of a great contest wherein these parties are struggling with 
each other for the control of the destiny of the country. You have been select- 
ed as the leader and standard-bearer of one of these parties. Thoughtful, earn- 
est and patriotic men, irrespective of past party affiliations, regard the issues of 
this campaign as being so serious that their settlement involves & crisis in our 
country's history. We are confronted with dangers so grave, so far-reaching 
that no man can measure the evil consequences that will follow, if our people 
make a mistake. In the past, the State of Illinois has always stood close to the 
Union, and her people have made many a sacrifice to uphold and maintain the 
honor and glory of our country. On many a battlefield her sons have fought 
and struggled, in many a grave they sleep who died that their country might 
live. (Great applause.) We come to you representing every walk in life ; from 
the counting room, the office, the factory, the railroad, the mine, the shop and 
the field we come animated by a love for our country stronger than mere pride 
of party, that reaches out beyond the limits of our own State, that knows no 
section, North, South, East or West. (Applause.) We come to express our good 
will for you personally ; to express our confidence and faith in you as our leader ; 
and to give you the assurance that the State of Illinois still stands, as she has 
always stood in every crisis of our country's history, for National honor, for the 
development and utilization of all the elements of National life, in our midst ; 
for the protection of our homes, our home interests and our home peo- 
ple, and for the largest share of prosperity that always comes wdth that protection. 
(Cheers.) Illinois stands for all the institutions of the Government that our 
fathers established. She stands for honest money and the faithful performance 
of all contracts, public or private. The influence of Illinois will be exerted to 
keep our country abreast of all the great Nations ; to keep her in the full glare 
of the light of civilization, and not to permit her to fall back under the shadow 
of barbarism. We neither favor nor reject any policy simply because it is 
British ; neither shall we go to China for precedents in religion, in education, 
in commerce or monetary science. (Laughter.) Finally, Major, we come to 
assure you that on the third of next November, Illinois will join with a majority 
of her sister States in a shout for McKinley and Hobart, for protection and 
honest money, and for that which will send a thrill of confidence and hope 
through every part of our troubled country ; that will dispel the clouds of dis- 
tress that hang so heavy over the land. And with your election we shall hope 
for a return of prosperity that will bring light to every home and joy to every 
heart." (Great cheering.) 



463 



riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: Nothing has brought me greater gratification thail 
this vast assemblage of my fellow citizens from the State of Illinois. (Api)lause.) 
Nothing could have been more pleasant than to have had the men you chose to 
bring your message — one of them, that sturdy old veteran and splendid hero of 
the war, the friend of General Gkant, your fellow citizen, General McNulta. 
(Great applause.) The other, the friend of my boyhood, the college friend of 
more than thirty years since, but now your fellow citizen, Mr. Calhoun. 
(Applause.) Then, too, I am proud to have had Mr. Givin who, I believe. >s 
the President of the largest Republican club in the United States (applaus-^; 
bring the good will of the clubs of your State. Nor can I fail to mention 
the supreme satisfaction it has given me to have a representative of labor 
(tremendous applause) that lies at the foundation of all wealth and prosperity 
in our country, in behalf of his oo-Iaborers, bring me assurances of support and 
confidence. (Grea- applause.) I thank them, and you, for all these encourag- 
ing messages. I greet Illinois from one end to the other. (Cries of 'Hurrah for 
McKiNLEY,' and great applause.) 

' Not without your wondrous story 
Can be read the country's glory, 

Illinois, Illinois. ' 

(Great applause.) It has been my good fortune and pleasure to greet several 
notable Illinois delegations at Canton during the present campaign. All 
of them have been cordially welcome ; but I beg to assure you that I am made 
especially glad in this celebration of 'Illinois Day' at my home, commemora- 
tive, I suppose, either of your admission to the Union in 1818, or of some one of 
your many recent achievements. But whatever it commemorates, your pres- 
ence here, with representatives from all parts of your State, testifies your de- 
votion to the cause of our country, which is represented by the Republican 
Party, and which a week from next Tuesday will be tried before the great trib- 
unal of the American people. (Applause.) The history of Illinois sparkles all 
over with great events like the heaven above us with its glittering stars. No 
Commonwealth can boast oi" a better civilization, gi-eater enterprise, thrift, or 
energy. (Applause.) None can boast of such agi-icultural wealth, and I have 
seen it stated that no territory of equal size in the world shows such a uniform 
productiveness of soil sb8 yours. (Great applause and cries of 'That's right.') 
You are a mighty empire in territory, but mightier in achievements and miglit- 
ier in grand names. You have the immortal Lixcoln. (Great applause.; 
That's enough for one State. (Laughter and applause.) You have the might j 
CiHANT, (renewed c'neering; who filled the world with his fame as he journeyed 
in the pathway of the sun Then you /lad Logax, (prolonged cheers) and 1 bid 
the constituents from Logan's home, Southern Illinois, hearty welcome today. 
Tlien you have Ogglesby — grand old Dick Ogglesby (a voice, 'Hurrah for Un- 
cle Dick) and you have Tanner. (Tremendous cheering.) You have swept by 
your sister States with a fleetness which commands ndmiration and -vonder. 
You iiave an area exceeding that of England and Wales combined, but not a 
single league of sterile land Out of 102 counties have seen it somewhere 
stated, seventy-four 'lave produced in a single year more than million 
bushels of wheat and corn each, and with twenty-four more yielding more than 
5(X),000 buohels each. Your acreage of farm land is estimated at 32,500.000. val- 
ued at over a billion dMlars, or more than thirty-one dollars per acre. Ynir 
farm products have reached $270,000,000 in n snigle year- -and some people seem 

464 



to think you would produce more if you had free silver (gi-eat laughter and ap- 
plause) — or more than $5 an acre for every acre of land. Now that the price of 
wheat is going up and silver is going down (laughter and applause) and your 
crops have been exceptionally good, I can not see how even the mossv pessi- 
mists can convince you, or themselves that our present gold standard, which we 
have had since 1879, can be of the least possible detriment to you. (Cries of 'It 
can't,' and applause.) My friends, good money is as essential to the farmer 
as good crops. (Great applause.) It is the boon of the farmer. Short dollars 
are as hurtful to him as short crops (applause and cries of 'That's rig-ht') and 
cheap money as injurious as low prices. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and great 
cheering.) Illinois is the first of the great corn States, with a production annu- 
ally of 325,000,000 bushels and, for the decade from 1874 to 1883, averaged 227,- 
000,000 of bushels, worth $70,000,000, or more than thirty cents per bushel. This 
was under the good times of a protective tariff. This was before the change of 
1892 (laughter and applause) and I firmly believe that when we have restored 
the self-preserving, prosperity-producing, debt-stopping system again, your 
farmers will go on to greater and grander triumphs and enjoy equal prosperity 
with that of years ago. (Cheers. But Illinois is not simply our first agi-icul- 
tural State. Her mineral product is very large. I have seen it stated that you 
already have 1,1(X) mines in forty-five counties, employing in good times, from 
24,CKX) to 38,000 miners, and producing from 17,000,000 to 20,000,000 tons of coal 
annually, next to Pennsylvania the largest product of any State of the Ameri- 
can Union. (Prolonged cheering.) Your greatest product was in 1893, when 
the protective tariff law was in full force and the aggregate home value was 
over $15,000,000. How much is it now? (A voice, 'Half of that,' and laughter 
and applause.) In manufactures, Illinois, in 1890, almost equally prominent 
with the first state of the Union, had an annual product of $-415,000,000 and it 
was only exceeded by New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. What a 
glorious Commonwealth you have. Every State in the Union takes pride in a 
growth so phenomenal, and none envy the prosperity which must necessarily 
benefit the whole National family. (Cries of 'Right,- 'Right you are,' and great 
applause. ) The prosperity of one State is the prosperity of another. The pros- 
perity of labor, the prosperity of workingmen, is the prosperity of the Nation. 
(Great cheering and cries of 'That's right') and you can not have that if you 
don't have work ; and you can not have work if you do your work with other 
hands on the other side under another flag. (Tremendous cheering.) Your 
vote in 1892 seems to have been much smaller than it ought to have been, 
(laughter and applause) which doubtless accounts for the result at the polls, 
for it was but 873,000 as against 861,000 in Ohio, when we, too, were strange- 
ly remiss in performing our whole duty. (Laughter and applause.) Ai-e 
you going to do better this year? (Tremendous shouts of 'Yes,' 'Yes,' and 
'You bet we are.') I am siu-e you will, for it was announced from this 
platform, that you had made the largest registration of any State in the 
American Union; and that ought to mean the largest majority of any 
city in the American Union, for sound money and protection. (Cries of 
'That's what it means,' and gre&t applause,) Will you give such a verdict? 
(Cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes.') What will 't»e your answer to the open challenge made 
to public honesty and public morals ? One can not but contemplate with pride 
the remarkable advance in population of Illinois, for, in my own lifetime, I have 
seen the great Prairie State advance from the rank of the eleventh State, with 
851,000 people in 1850, to the third State, with 3,826,000. (Tremendous ap- 
plause.) What will your future be ? That depends upon yourselves. States 

465 



can no more stand still than individuals. They must inevitably advance or re- 
cede. What will Illinois do? (Shouts of 'Advance every time.') You can 
never permanently advance, you can never permanently prosper under any sys- 
tem of false finance or fa'se political economy that was ever devised by tlie will 
of man. The triumph of the great city of Chicago in exhibiting the world's ad- 
vancement at the great exposition still fills mankind with amazement, and the 
Republic with increasing pride, and marks a glorious stage in the history of hu- 
man progress. (Applause.) You can only prosper upon honest principles, hon- 
est purposes, honest laws, and public and private honor. Agriculture will be 
prostrated, commerce will languish, mining will decrease and manu/actui-es 
d.iminish, if, to the misery of partial free trade, you add the heresy of free sil- 
ver (cries of 'That's right,' and tremendous applause) which, in this contest, 
means the violation of existing contracts and the utter disregard of good faith 
and the absolute repudiation, in whole, or in part, of our public anl private ob- 
ligations. Disguise the issues as you may, the bold, cold, hard facts remain, 
and no amount of chicanery or sophistry will hide them. Are you prepared to 
take such a step as that ? (Cries of 'No, sir,' 'Never,' followed by applause. ) No, 
forever, no! Chicago and the great State of Illinois will vote that the laws of 
our country must be supreme over all. (Cries of 'Yes, you are right,' and 
*Hurrah for MoKixLEY.') You will express your devotion to law, liberty and 
labor on the third day of November. (Applause and cries of 'That's what we'll 
do,' and 'You bet.') You will vote to maintain the honor of the country, 
(Cries of 'Good,' 'Good," and 'Yes,' 'Yes') and restore the greai protective 
principle, under which for more than a third of a century we enjoyed unprece- 
dented happiness and prosperity. (Cdes of 'That's true,' and 'That's right'; 
Vote, my fellow citizens, not as partisans, but as patriots. (Cries of 'les, that's 
right.') Vote, not with your old parties, but vote for ynnr homes, your fire- 
sides, your families, your wages and your labor; vote foi your country's honor, 
and for the honor of our glorious old Stars and Stripes (Tremendous apphiuse.) 
Once to every man and nation comes the supreme moment; the moment to de- 
cide in the strife of truth and falsehood for the good or evil side. What will 
your decision be on the third day of November ?" (Loud cries of 'Vote for Mc- 
KixLEY,' followed by continued cheering.) 

CLEVELAND'S EA5T END REGIMENT. 

One of the handsomest delegations that came tc Canton to greet Major 
McKiNLEY was from Cleveland and arrived about 4:30 o'clock Wednesday 
afternoon, October 21st, via the Cleveland, Canton and Southern road. The 
visitors were handsomely uniformed, and were led by a mounted escort. Kirk's 
Military Band came with the Forest City men and led the pai-ade. The delega- 
tion comprised the East End McKinley Eegiment, of seven companies, who 
were introduced by F. G. Hogan. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizexs: I can not worthily express my appreciation of this 
call from the Cleveland East End Republican Regiment. From this splendidly 
equipped body of men, enrolled in a cause that is sacred to every American 
citizen, in which is involved the honor of the country, the welfare of the people 
and the prosperity of the Nation. I am glad to know that this magnificent 
regiment is enrolled in our cause, and to have assurances that each of you will 

466 



express your convictions upon public questions one week from next Tuesday in 
casting a straight Republican vote. (Cheers. ) It is a good thing now and then to 
consult our political chart. A chart is useful in individual as well as in Nation- 
al life, and I wish every man in the country might again read the preamble to the 
Constitution of the United States— that great instrument upon which rests this 
political fabric and which gives us protection under law. Let me read it to you : 
'We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, 
promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of America.' (Applause. ) 
I wish it might be read and pondered by every citizen of the country. What was 
its gi-eat purpose? To form a more perfect Union ; not to create sectional an- 
tagonisms or raise class divisions ; to establish justice, not to destroy the courts 
of justice ; not to tolerate injustice or wrong or dishonesty, for justice, as con- 
templated by that preamble, could hardly permit us to repudiate our obliga- 
tions or make a currency which would cheat or defraud either public or private 
creditors. (Great cheering and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') Another great purpose 
of that Constitution was to insure domestic tranquility. What's that? Why, 
to preserve the public peace and prevent disquietude and turmoil ; to bring the 
whole people of this country into close, friendly and fraternal relations ; and it was 
the purpose of that great instrument that they might have one aim, one purpose, 
one ambition, and destiny for this free Republic. Not to array class against 
class, nor one interest against another, nor one section against another, nor to 
build a wall or partition between one part of our people and the others. We all 
have in this country — thanks to that Constitution and to the wisdom of our 
fathers — we all have absolute equality both under the laws .and in opportunity. 
(Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and continuous cheering.) Where would Linoolx, 
Garfield and Graxt have stood if the doctrine that is now taught that those 
of humble surroundings and who have not yet made their careers, or acquir- 
ed their fortune, are to be set off by themselves, and are not to be permitted 
to aspire to higher and better things? E\ery sentiment of our country, the 
spirio of our institutions. National honesty, the National spirit, all cry out 
against the doctrine of class, or caste, or distinction in the United States. 
(Tremendous cheers.) Now, my fellow citizens, having said this much, for I 
have been doing little else today but talking to my fellow citizens from many 
States of the Union. I only want to say to you that in this contest we are striking 
for our prosperity, our homes and our honor. (Three cheers.) It can not be 
that the people of the United States will dishonor its credit (cries of 'Never,' 
•Never') and tarnish its matchless honor or continue a policy that has enriched 
our competitors across the sea and impoverished ourselves. (Cries of 'Good,' 
'Good,' and great applause.) I thank you heartily for this call and bid you good 
evening." (Three tremendous cheers.) 

THE riASSILLON CLUBS CALL. 

At eight o'clock the various Canton Republican Clubs formed a torch light 
parade. They were joined by the East End Regiment of Cleveland and the two 
bodies together escorted the'RepublicanClubsofMassillon to Major McKixley's 
residence. Tlie parade was reviewed by him. The Canton and Cleveland Clubs 
returned to the Public Square while the Massillon boys demanded a speech. 



467 



Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: It is peculiarly gratifying to have the young men 
of Massillon, i-epresenting two clubs make this call, and I am glad to have the 
assurance that in the pending contest, your votes will be given for the great 
Republican Party ,which stands for what is good in government and what is noble 
in the American name. (Applause.) Massillon has always been very dear to 
me. Although a citizen of Canton, I have always felt the deepest interest and 
had the closest relations with our neighboring city, and just now, as 
memory sweeps like a mighty cui-rent, I recall that I am indebted to some of 
the good Republicans of Massillon for having first announced and supported my 
candidacy for office in earlier years. (Applause.) I suppose there 
is scarcely a young man in these Sound Money Clubs that I have not known 
from early boyhood. One young man told me tonight, that the first time he 
ever attended a political meeting he was but a lad of six years and was taken by 
his father to a meeting in Massillon, which I addressed. He is a voter today, 
as hundreds of you are from that city. I have always had the deepest interest 
in young men ; they are ever an inspiration to me. The whole future is before 
them. There is nothing which they can not attain by industry, integrity and 
earnestness in life. Let me say to the young men here assembled, that there 
is nothing in all this world that counts for so much as a pure, unsullied life. 
(Great applause.) And there is nothing on this earth that will serve you so 
well as a good name ; when you have that, all else waits upon you. I do not 
teach the doctrine of classes and caste in this country. I would rather preach 
the gospel of hope than of despair. I would bid my fellow countrymen look up 
rather than give up. (Continued cheering.) I would rather counsel and 
encourage than to discourage. We have discouragements enough without being 
told of them all the time. (Laughter and great applause.) But, while they are 
sometimes hard to bear, the proud spirited, high mettled young man is only 
spurred to gi-eater activity by them. (Applause.) I am glad to know that you 
have enlisted in the ranks of the Republican Party. It is a party that inspires 
the noblest endeavors in public as well as in private affairs. It is to the glory 
of our institutions that we recognize no sections, no nationalities, no classes, no 
colors, but that men of all nationalties and all colors are equal citizens in this 
great, free Republic. (Tremendous applause.) I thank you for this call. I appre- 
ciate it beyond power to make worthy response. I congratulate you upon your 
splendid appearance. I hope you will come over to Canton and see us very 
often, as I may probably be prevented from coming to see you this year, as has 
been my custom for so many years in the past. I thank you and bid you good 
night." (Great cheering.) 

CRESTON, WAYNE COUNTY, REPUBLICANS. 

Creston, Wayne county, Ohio, formerly belonging to the District rep- 
resented by Major MoKixley in Congress, sent a delegation to Canton to call 
upon him, on Thursday, October 22nd. The party of over three hundred peo- 
ple came to Massillon via the Erie road, and to Canton over the Inter-Urban line. 
There were a number of women in the delegation and they mai-ched to the 
McKinley residence headed by Canton Troop, the Citizens' Reception Com- 
mittee and the Creston Band. At the residence, Mr. A. I. Richards, a business 
man, spoke on behalf of the delegation. 

468 ^- 



Major McKinley's Response. 

•'Ladies and GentleMex and My Fellow Citizens: I esteem this call 
from my old constituents, neighbors and fellow citizens as a very great 
compliment and honor — not to me personally, but to the principles and policies 
for which the Republican Party stands this year. (Applause.) I remember 
when the Republicans of Creston and AVayne county were among the most 
earnest and enthusiastic of my old Congressional District and I see you have 
not lost your earnestness and enthusiasm. We can not by legislation in 
this country make values ; we can not by any legerdemain of finance make 
something out of nothing. The only way to get wealth is by labor, and 
anyb<-'dy who teaches any other doctrine is not the friend of American citi- 
zenship or of the American home. (Great applause and blowing of 
horns.) There is no such thing as creating wealth by the mere 
breath of Congi-ess. Congress can do a gi-eat many things, but it can" 
not make you rich or the country rich by debasing the money of the country ; 
and it can not make the country rich by giving us coins that are only worth 
fifty-two cents each and stamping them dollars. (Great laughter and loud 
applause.) Now, Congress can help the country, but it must be by wise legisla- 
tion, by caring for the products, the labor, the farms and the manufactures of our 
own people, and by protecting them against the products of people living in other 
lands. (Great applause and cries of 'That's right,' and 'That's good.') If you 
are a farmer, what you want first is good crops. Legislation can not help you 
to them. You know in order to get good crops you have to sow and then you 
must have God's sunshine and rain. A cheap dollar will never help 'your 
crops any. (Great laughter and tremendous applause.) You have to toil just 
as hard for a poor crop as a good one. But, after you have a good crop, you 
want a good market. You have that in the United States if you ai-e let alone, 
but if somebody's products can come in here and displace yours, then your mar- 
ket is not so good. Isn't that right ? (Loud shouts of 'Yes, you are right.') 
This is all there is of that question. Tlie millions of American freemen should, 
by their ballots, decree that the legislation of our country shall jwo- 
tect and defend American interests and promote American develop- 
ment, against the outside world. (Great applause and cries of "Hurrah 
for McKiNLEY.') Now, when you have a good market and sell your wlieat, or 
corn, you want to be paid in good money, don't you? (Cries of 'Sure,' 'Sure,' 
and 'You bet.') You older men around me will remember the period when you 
sold your wheat and were paid in state bank money, which was good on the day 
you received it, but just as likely as not on the next day you discovered that 
this value had depreciated (a voice, 'It was not worth anything') and it was 
not worth anything, my friend says, and all your labor was lost. Well, now, 
the best thing for the farmer after his good crops and his good markets, is good 
money, and when you give four full pecks for a bushel and sell your wheat by 
the full bushel you want to be paid in dollars that are worth fully one himdred 
cents each, not only today but every day and everywhere. (Cries of 'You are 
right,' and great applause.) This is what the Republican Party stands for this 
year, those two things above all others, but the Republican Party doesn't stand 
alone for them. A gi-eat part of the Democratic party, the leaders of 
the old Democratic party, are one with us in the struggle for National honor 
and prosperity. (Continuous cheering.) I am glad to meet and greet you, 
but other delegations are coming, and I must not detain you. It will give me 
pleasure to shake the hands of my old friends, men and women, once more." 
(Three cheers were then given for "The next President of the United States.") 

46y 



OHIO DAY IN CANTON. 

Major McKiNLEY had scarcely finished his lunch. Thursday. October 22nd, 
when he was greeted by a large delegation from Barnesville, Belmont county, 
Quaker City and Salesville, Guernsey county, and Batesville. Noble county, 
Ohio. It was a delegation of about fifteen hundred people, and was headed by 
a band and drum corps. The visitors arrived about two o'clock and were es- 
corted to the McKinley home by Canton Troop and the Citizens' Committee. 
They filled the entire yard, all being unable to get within the enclosure. Pereons 
in the delegation presented Major McKinley with four baskets of strawberries 
and a can of cream. The strawberries were gathered from the vines the day 
previous and were rich luscious fruit, and, remarkable to state, were second crop 
berries. Representative C. J. Howard, of Barnesville, presented the visitors, 
saying : "We have come, not because of the new honors that have fallen upon you, 
but as old friends of William McKinley, and to do our part in bidding him god- 
speed in the battle for the Nation's honor and for prosperity. Four years ago 
Belmont county was proud of the number and importance of her factories and 
the farmers boasted of their great shearings of wool. Four years ago the 
factories wei'e running night and day, only pausing for repairs. Today they are 
silent and helpless. Today the county's wealth of products is destroyed. Free 
trade theorists said free wool would help our people Yes, it has helped them 
to idleness and want. We ai-e unalterably opposed to any depreciation of the 
Nation's obligations and shall welcome a tariff which will light the factoi-y hres 
again and put the sheep on our gi-and old hills. We are equally opposed to being 
paid for our labor in fifty cent dollars." (Cheers.) 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens: This call, on the part of the citizens of Belmont, 
Guernsey and Noble counties, is greatly appreciated. It seems like old times 
to hear your shouts, and, as I am not this year coming to see you, it is 
most gracious on your part to come to see me. (Applause.) Briefly, my 
fellow citizens, what is this great contention that is engaging the attention 
of seventy millions of people to the exclusion of everything else? What is it all 
about? First, shall we have an honest dollar worth one hundred cents, or shall 
we adopt as our standard a dollar worth only fifty-two cents? Secondly, shall 
we pay the obligations of the Government, as we have always paid them — in the 
highest form of money knowTi to the civilized world? Thirdly, shall we now 
enter upon the issuance of depreciated paper money, as proposed by the 
Chicago platform? Fourthly, shall this Government, by law, be sustained under 
the law and through the courts created by law? Fifthly, shall we continue the 
partial free trade policy which was inaugurated by the elections of 1892, or shall 
we restore that grand protective policy under which, for more than thirty years, 
we lived and had such gi-eat prosperity? (Cries of 'Hear,' 'Hear.') I take it 
the people about me (at least those who can hear my voice) are opposed to 
debasing the money of the country. Every man, whether he has much money 
or little, wants it good. He wants a money stable in value, uncorrupted and 
incorruptible ; a money that will be worth one hundred cents on every dollar, 
whether he keeps it or parts with it ; whether he receives it in payment for labor or 
for farm products, or pays it to the merchant or to the banker. (Great applause.) 
I take it that no man in Ohio wants the obligations of the United States dis- 
honored to the extent of a single farthing. We have fought this battle over and 
over again. The Democratic party, or one wing of it at least, once declared 

470 



that we must repudiate the bonds of the United States, but the Republicans 
Baid : 'No, these bonds were issued to save the flag of the country and every 
dollar must be paid in as good currency as the world knows.' And we paid off, 
under that policy, more than two-thirds of that great National Debt. Is there a 
man in this audience who wants the currency of this Government debased? Is 
there a man who wants to continue the policy inaugurated four years ago? 
(Cries of 'No,' 'No.') You do not want a policy that depletes the country's 
treasury. You do not want a policy that makes it necessary to borrow money 
in time of peace in order to pay the running expenses of the Government ; you 
want a policy that will pay all the expenses of the Government and have a sur- 
plus to pay the debt. (A voice, 'That's right.') You want a policy that will 
give w^ork to the laboring man and American wages to American workingmen ; 
that will give the wool merchant a fair price for his w^ool ; that produces an 
American market for the American farmer, and defends the American workshop 
against the workshops of the w^orld. This is what the Republican Party stands 
for, and what hundreds of thousands of Democrats stand for, who are going to 
vote for honest money this year. (Applause. ) Now, these great questions are to 
be tried before the gi-eat jury of American people a week from next Tuesday. 
What will Guernsey, Noble aud Belmont counties do then?" (Cries of 'Vote 
for McKiNLEY,' followed by great cheering.) 

FROM riEDINA AND BEREA. 

Two delegations of about a thousand men and women arrived from Medina 
and Berea, via the Fort Wayne road. They were met by Canton Troop and the 
Citizens' Committee and escorted through the city. In the delegation from 
Berea were nearly one hundred students from Baldwin University and German 
Wallace College, whose college yells were frequently heard. The Medina 
Quartet sang several selections. The Seville Band and a drum corps furnished 
the instrumental music. Prof. M. F. Warner, President of Baldwin Universi- 
ty, presented the Berea citizens and the college students. Mr. Charles D. 
WiGHTMAN was Spokesman for the Medina delegation. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen: This is indeed a most 
welcome visit from my fellow citizens of Berea, Cuyahoga county, and fi-om 
the county of Medina. I like the spirit of the remarks of Professor 
Warner. This is not a partisan campaign ; it rises altogether above that. 
It is a campaign, as I view it, for the United States (applause and cries of 
'You are right') its honor, its credit, its currency, its welfare; and I welcome 
the assistance w^hich comes to our cause from every quarter of the country, 
from men who heretofore have not been identified with us in party associa- 
tions. Professor Warner is a good enough Republican for me this year (great 
laughter and applause) and he does not stand alone. (Cries of 'No,' 'No') for 
in every State of the Union there are good old-fashioned Democrats, who love 
their country's honor more highly than they do former political associations, 
and they are with us in this contest. (Cries of 'That's true,' 'You are right,' and 
applause.) I am glad to meet the young men from the College of Berea. We 
can submit our principles with confidence to the educated men of the United 
States. (Renew^ed applause.) I rejoice that in every college of the countryi 
East and West, where a poll has been taken, a large majority is always found in 
favor of financial integrity and National honor. (Continuous cheering.) It 

471 



is a good thing for young men to commence right. Dishonesty never pays, 
either in National or individual life; and if there ever was a question of honesty 
involved in a political contest, it is involved in that of 1S96. (Applause and cries 
of 'You are right,' and 'That's correct.') I am glad to greet my old fiieiids from 
Medina county — friends of long ago, friends of many years standing, friends 
who have stood unfalteringly to the cause of Republican principles ever since 
the organization of the Republican Party. Grand old county! When my 
District was gerrymandered in 1884, all they wanted to know in that county 
Was, how many votes I requii-ed to elect me to Congress, (great laughter and 
continuous applause) and then when they found out how many we had to have, 
they scoured the woods and furnished them. (A voice, 'And all honest votes, 
too,' and great laughter and applause.) And all were honest votes, too, as my 
friend says. All voted for that cause because they believed it embraced the 
greatest prosperity for the American people. Some people seem to think that 
the way to enrich this country is to coin the silver of the world (laughter and 
applause) at the rate of sixteen to one Well, if sixteen to one is a good thing, 
thirty-two to one is better (tremendous laughter and renewed cheering) for 
thirty-two to one better expresses the commercial i*elation between gold and 
silver than sixteen to one. If we are to coin silver into doUai's we want enough 
put into every dollar to make it worth a hundred cents everywhere (applause) 
so that the dollar will not cheat anybody, either a public or a private creditor. 
But, my fellow citizens, there is more involved in this campaign than the 
question of currency. There is the question of whether this is to be a Govern- 
ment by law. (Cries of 'That's right,' and applause.) Whether the law is to be 
supreme over all ; whether the courts of this country, which are a sheet anchor 
for us in every time of trouble, are to be sustained or to become the mere 
creatures of a pai'ty caucus. Away with doubts as to the efficiency and in- 
violability of our courts. (Applause.) This is a Government by law and the 
people will render a verdict on the third day of November, sustaining both 
law and courts. (Cries of 'You bet we will,' and 'That's right,' and great 
applause.) Now. my fellow citizens, thanking you for your visit, which to me 
is both a gi-eat honor and a gratification, it will give me pleasure, if it be your 
wish, to meet and greet each of you personally." (Tremendous cheers for 

MoKlNLEY.) 

THE SECOND GUERNSEY DELEGATION. 

When the Medina delegation had shaken hands with Major McKinles- and 
inarched away from the stand, the second contingent from Guernsey county, 
principally people from Cambridge, took their places. They cheered again 
and again as Major McKinley bowed to them from the stand. Dr.W. H. 
McFarland, of Cambridge, presented the delegation. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

" ^Iy Fellow Citizens : I thank you for this visit ; I am glad to greet thi3 
third delegation of the year from Guernsey county at my home ; I am glad to 
have your presence testify that you have a deep interest in the pending cam- 
paign, and that you want your votes to count on the right side— the side that 
will do most for country, for home, and for family. I am one of those who be- 
lieve that the majority of the citizens of this country— no matter what may 
have been their political relations in the past— are interested in achieving for 
tthe country its highest prosperity and the well being of its people. (Applause.) 

472 



It is a question among the people as to what will bring about such a result. 
Honest men may differ, but whenever the citizen is convinced that a certain 
policy will not subserve the highest interests of the people, I am sure he is 
willing to abandon such a princip'e and unite in putting upon the public statutes 
another policy. I assume that all the people are honest, and that they want 
honest things in government, I assume that a good many people who, four 
years ago, honestly believed free trade was the best thing for this country, 
believe now it is not the best thing. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and great ap- 
plause.) And being honest when in 1892 they voted their beliefs, they propose 
to be equally as honest this year and vote the other way. (Cries of 'Yes, 
sir.' 'Amen/ and 'That^s what we'll do,' follow^ed by tremendous applause.) I 
believe there have been a great many people who honestly believed 
that the free coinage of the silver of the world might be a good thing, 
but, after full investigation of the subject, are satisfied it would be altogether 
the wrong thing. (Renewed cheering.) The American people want no dishon- 
esty in their Iruvernment ; they want no dishonest standards of value ; they 
want no false weights, fals- measures, false values, or false economy. (Great 
applause.) ^ow, I think the people of this country believe that we ought to 
have a protective tariff high enough to raise money to run the Government, 
(cries of 'You are right') and keep it out of debt. High enough to keep Ameri- 
can shops running and American workingmen employed. (Tremendous cheers. ) 
And high enough to preserve the home market, the best market in the world, 
to the American farmer and agi-iculturalist. (Renewed applause.) The people 
don't want short dollars any more than they want short weights, or measures, 
(Tremendous applause and cries of 'You are right,' and 'You bet we don't.') 
And now, my fellow citizens, I think you are ready to vote. (Tremendous 
shouts of 'Yes, sir,' 'Right you are,' and 'We will vote for McKixley.') Is 
Guernsey county ready to vote? (Vociferous shouts of 'You bet we are.') I 
thank iuu for your coming, and bid you all good-bye." (Three cheers.) 

MUSKINGUM VALLEY DELEGATION. 

While Major ^IcKinley was addressing his friends and neighbors from 
other counties, a delegation of over two thousand people from Marietta, and 
AVashington and Morgan counties were awaiting their turn. The crowds were 
so large that they filled the lawTi and overflowed upon Market street. It was 
decided that under the circumstances, the speaking would take place from the 
stand. As Major McKixley made his way through the dense throng he was com- 
pelled to shake hands with hundreds. In the delegation were about fifty mem.- 
bers of the Boys' Brigade of the Harmar Congregational Church, of Marietta. 
They were in full uniform and were presented by Captain J. B. Aebour. Judge 
Crew was spokesman for the Morgan county people, and Mr. J. H. Grafton, 
President of the ^larietta McKinley and Hobart Club, introduced his fellow 
citizens and neighbors of Washington county. Judge Crew's address wf s 
short, but he said his neighbors and friends would solidly support the Republi- 
can standard bearer. President Grafton, in his address, said: "Our country 
sends to you, today, representatives from each and every voting precinct within 
her borders. We bring living evidences of our gi-eat esteem and affection for 
you, our neighbor, friend, and champion of the great American principles." 
He 'then introduced Master Joseph Arbour, sixteen years old, who spoke 
for the Boys' Brigade. He said in part: " We do not come today to pay our 
respects to you because you are the standard bearer of the great Republicaa 

473 



Party, but because you have at all times stood as an example of true Christian 
manliness and patriotism. Those same prjncii)les form the vej-y foundation of 
our order." 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

'•My Fet.low Citizens: Yesterday we celebrated what was known as 
' Illinois Day.' I thinlv today may w^ell be denominated OiiioDay.' (Laughter 
and applause.) I have been doing little else, since nine o'clock this morning, 
but receiving and welcoming my fellow citizens and old constituents. 
I bid you all hearty welcome. I have just spoken to the people of five 
counties— Belmont, Guernsey, Noble, Medina and Cuyahoga— and I now face 
thousands of my fellow citizens from Washington and Morgan. This seems 
to me, therefore, a vei-y appropriate time to indulge in reflections upon the 
precious memories connected with our Statehood and advanced civilization. 
These representatives of Marietta recall to our minds that it was the first settle- 
ment in this gi'eat Commonwealth, and I have thought it might not be untimeiy 
to pay some tribute to the great men, the noble pioneers, to whom we owe so 
much for our civilization and great Commonwealth. I recall many visits to 
Marietta, and remember with pride and pleasure my receptions there. (Ap- 
plause.) Perhaps we are too forgetful of the heroic part of our noble ancestors, 
the first settlers of the Northwest Teri'itory and the five or six States erected 
from its imperial domain — for we will not surrender fair Minnesota, the great 
wheat and flour State, if part of it does lie west of the Mississippi, your original 
boundary (Laughter and applause.) There was a time when Washington 'A^as 
the only organized county in all that magnifi .ent empire which stretched from 
Pennsylvania on the east to the Mississippi on the west, and from the Ohio on r!ie 
south to the great lakes on the north — an empire. I say, today more majestic 
than was ever presided over by any king or czar, because majestic in the peace, 
and plenty and prosperity, which its citizens may quickly and readily obtain. 
(Applause.) Washington county may well boast a long line of eminent and 
patriotic citizens, for they are the common pride of the State and country. Itre- 
quii'es no effort of the memory to recall such great and honored names as Rp?us 
Putnam, Major Tupper, Commodore Whipple, Judge Ephriam Cltlbr. Return 
J. Meigs, Dr. Hildreth, Ohio's greatest historian. Dr. Andrews, of grand old 
Marietta College, that great organizer of the Volunteer Army, General Btteli., 
General John H. Eaton, commissioner of the National Bureau of Education, 
sturdy old William P. Cutler, and that hero of Sherman's great march. General 
Fearing, and that other splendid soldier. Colonel Hildebrand, distinguished in 
the battle of Shiloh. All these come to my mind as I speak to you, but I miss 
a familiar face and regi'et his unavoidable absence — that of my old friend, the 
brave and gallant commander of the Iron Brigade — General Kupus R. Dawes, 
(tremendous applause) to whom I wish the greatest peace and happiness in his 
declining years, which are full of honor with the happy recollection of good deeds 
bravely done. It is such men as these, my fellow citizens, that have made our 
country great and deservedly distinguished above all o hers. I never speak to 
a Washington county audience, I never see the people from the dear old town 
of Marietta, the first settlement of the great West, without thinking of the 
boundlesss blessings those first settlers, perhaps unconsciously, brought to their 
beloved country and to mankind. (Applause.) It is impossible tospeakof them 
without recalling the glorious Ordinance of Freedom that passed the American 
Congi-ess on July 13, 1787, with but one dissenting vote. Well has Bancroft 
said of it: 'An interlude in Congress (between the permanent disbanding ot 

474 J 



the old Confederacy and the adoption of the new Constitution) wa? shaping tixe 
character and f'-stiny of the United States of America. Sublime and humane 
and eventful in \he history of mankind as was the result, it will not take many 
words to tell how it was brought about. Wisdom and peace and justice for the 
time dwelt among men and the great deed, which could alone give continuance 
to the Union, came in serenity and stillness. Every man thai had a share in it 
seemed to be moved by an invisible hand to do just what was wanted of him. 
All that was wrongfully undertaken fell oy the wayside. Whatever was needed 
for the happy completion of the mighty work arrived opportunely and just ac 
the right moment into place.' My fellow countrymen, may we all be inspired 
by the same blessed spirit of patriotism that moved the grand and great men 
who founded our Government. We have in the contest now upon us that 
which commands the highest patriotism and noblest aspirations of American 
citizenship. Our honor is impugned ; our currency is threatened ; our courts are 
assaulted ; the very fabric of our Government is involved in the controversy 
which we must settle one week from next Tuesday. (Great applause and cries 
of 'We will settle it,' and 'We'll vote the right way.') This is not a partisan 
contest; it is a contest built upon genuine patriotism and looking to genuine 
Americanism. (Renewed cheering and cries of 'Ihat's right.') I was glad to 
hear my young friend. Master Akbour, representing the Boys' Brigade 
from the Congregational Church. What he said was well said of 
the necessity of standing by the country, and I want to say to these young men 
that there is nothing half so good in all this world as clean hands, pure hearts, 
and upright, noble purposes. (Renewed applause. ' No danger can ever come 
to this Republic so long as we carry the American flag in our hands and cherish 
its meaning in our hearts. I speak to all my fellow citizens of Ohio, when I say 
that this is the year when you are vo determine, each for himself, whether or 
not you want a fifty-two cent dollar or a hundred cent dollar ; whether or not you 
want a return to that prosperity from which you ran away in 1892 ; and whether 
or not you want to continue that industrial policy which increases debts for the 
Government, and debts for the people, and want and destitution for all of us. 
(Cries of 'We want protection,' and 'We want McKinley,' followed by con- 
tinuous cheering.) The Republican Party stands for an honest dollar; for the 
maintenance of the public honor; for sustaining the public faith; for keeping 
incorruptible the courts of the country, and for proclaiming to all the world that 
this is a Government of law (great applause) and that law must be supreme 
over all. In this great contest the Republican Party has been designated to 
carry the banner that represents those great principles (a voice, 'Glory to God') 
and men of all political parties this year are rallying around that banner, because 
it embraces what they believe to be the highest good of the people and the glory 
of the great Republic. I thank you for this call and bid you good afternoon." 
(Continuous cheering, waving of hats and handkerchiefs, blowing of horns and 
beating of drums.) 

AN INDIANA DELEGATION. 

The sixth and last delegation reached Canton at 4:30 o'clock, on Thursday, 
October 22nd. It consisted of about three hundred men and women from the 
neighboring State of Indiana, embracing residents of Valparaiso, Warsaw, Ply- 
mouth, Fort Wayne, Stark county, and Porter county, of that State. Though 
small the delegation was very enthusiastic. The visitors were presented by 
Mr. William H. Dowdell, of Valparaiso, who was delegated the pleasant 
privilege at the Canton depot by his friends and neighbors. 

475 



Major McKinIey'5 Response. 

"My Fellow Citizkxs: I appreciate the fact that you have traveled more 
than three hundred miles to my home to testify your devotion to the Republi- 
can Pai'ty, whose success, doubtless, you believe, with me, will be for the wel- 
fare of the country. (Cries of 'We do.') I am glad, to welcome you to my home 
and gi-eet you as fellow citizens of a sister State, proud of the record and his- 
tory of your own Commonwealth and prouder still that her people are citizens 
of the bravest, freest and best country on the earth — the Republic of the United 
States. (Cheers.) "We want to see to it that the gi*and civilization that we 
enjoy, and the splendid free institutions which we have inherited, shall not be 
permitted to suffer, least of all to suffer at our hands. A government of the 
people which rests upon the consent of the governed, is a government that can 
be made by the people to express just such policies as they believe will best 
subserve their own interests. (Applause.) You will have an opportunity, one 
week from next Tuesday, to express by your individual ballots what you think 
of the gi-eat questions that divide us this year. They are questions wliich ought 
not to be troublesome in rightful determination. The question as to whether 
good money or poor money is wanted should not create doubt in any mind. AVe 
want good money, good at home and good abroad, and good all the time, for 
when we have parted with our work and labor, or our products, we want some- 
thing in return of stable value. That is the kind of money we have now — gold, 
silver and paper, all alike, all equal in purchasing and debt paying power, made 
good by the Government of the United States. (Applause.) It is now propos- 
ed that we shall open our mints to the free coinage of the silver of the world. 
How is the workingman to get any profit out of that ? The only way he can 
get profit is by his labor. If you should coin all the silver in the world you 
could not get any profit from it. The trouble is not with our money ; it is that we 
want something to do. It is the lost job we want back. (Cries of 'Right,' 
'Right.') It is the lost market that the farmer wants back again. It is our 
splendid home market that has been surrendered. It was opened up to wide 
fields by the reciprocity treaty of 1890, and we want it back, and we mean to 
start to get it back this year. (Loud cheers.) This is all there is to this ques- 
tion, so far as the tariff and finance are concerned. It is not a lack of money, 
but a lack of markets. It is not a lack of money that the workingman is 
suffering from, but a luck of work. It is not a lack of money that the manu- 
facturers and merchants are suffering from, but a lack of confidence created by 
the inauguration of the destructive industrial system which deprived Ameri- 
cans of their own splendid market. (Cries of 'You are right.') What we want 
to do is to get back that confidence, and we can not do it unless you defeat the 
party that destroyed that confidence. It is all in your own hands. I know the 
people of Indiana are in favor of law and order, and of honest money. (Cries 
of 'And of Major McKinley.') You are in favor of good money, good times, 
and good markets. You know how you lost some of them and you know the 
direct route to get them back again, and if you do not follow in that way, I 
shall be very much surprised. I thank you for the pleasure and honor of this 
friendly call. I tell you, my fellow citizens, it means a great deal when 
h'lndreds of people, men and women, will travel a distance of three iunidred 
miles to give evidence of their unchanged faith in the honor and credit of the 
United States and in the incorruptibility of its currency." (Loud cheers.) 



476 



NEW CASTLE AND LOQANSPORT, INDIANA. 

A train of five coaches and a sleeper brought a delegation to Canton, Fri- 
day morning, October 23rd, from New Castle and Logansport, Indiana, at 5:30 
o'clock over the Fort Wayne road. Editor W. H. Elliott, of the New Castle 
Courier, acted as spokesman. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: Nothing but a deep concern for the future of the 
country would have induced this body of my countrymen to travel all night that 
they might bring assurances of support to the great Republican Party, this year. 
Because they believe that enveloped in its cause are the highest and best in- 
terests of our common country. (Applause.) I am glad to welcome you to my 
home and am glad to have the assurance of your spokesman that the fires of 
Republicanism are glowing so brightly in the State of Benjamin Harrison, that 
splendid and patriotic statesman, and the home of that other gi-eat statesman 
and 'War Governor,' Oliver P. Morton. (Loud cheers.) Four years ago it was 
eaid to the people of this country, who were under prosperous and healthy con- 
ditions, that they were suffering, and that free trade would cure all the real or 
supposed ills they had, and that it would be the panacea for all their troubles 
We did not have many troubles then — much fewer than we have now. But we 
tried the prescription they offered us and voted for free trade. You men about 
me know better the result of that vote by your experiences of the last three 
and a lialf years than I can tell you. Free trade did not bring us more trade. 
(Cries of 'No.') It did not bring us more wages. (Repeated cries of 'No.') It 
did not bring us better prices for our farm products, did it ? (Cries of 'No, in- 
deed.') Did it bring anything but injury and distress to the country ? (Cries 
of 'No, you're right.') Now they propose, having got us into this condition, to 
get us out of it by the free coinage of the silver of the world. To say that fifty- 
two cents in silver shall be worth a dollar to the American people, and want us 
to accept it as such. (Cries of 'We won't do it.' ) This is the cure they offer for all 
our present ills. How will free silver increase the demand for labor ? How will 
it increase the demand for wheat ? Will it increase the wages of labor in this 
country, open new markets for the American farmer, or new avenues of 
work for the laboring man? (Cries of 'No,' 'No.') Why, if you started all the 
mints of this country working to their fullest capacity and extent you would 
not increase the demand for labor, corn, or any American product, and you 
would not increase wages. Their cry is that we have not enough money. Now 
everybody knows ttat is not true. We never had such prosperous times as in 
1892, and we have just as much money now as we had then. It is not the lack 
of money that is at fault, it is the difficulty of putting men to work and cre- 
ating markets for our products. (A voice, 'Open the mills.') You can not 
make fifty-two cents a dollar and make a gold dollar worth one hundred cents 
circulate alongside of it. The gold dollar will go out and every paper dollar 
based on gold will go out, there will be less circulating medium, and instead of 
the good money we have now we shall have poor money. (Cries of 'You're 
right.') Can you tell me why the free coinage of silver is going to help busi- 
ness? It will not increase the demand for anything but silver. There will be 
an increase in the production of silver, but then down goes the price 
ar.d then you will have to consult your paper every morning to see what silver 
is worth. (A voice, 'I have been in Mexico and know that is so.') We do not 
want such money in the United States. We want dollars worth one hui'.dred 

477 



cents. It is the lost job that is troubling us ; it is not money but the lost mar- 
ket that is troubling us. Why, we abolished the reciprocity treaties after the 
election of 1892, and the splendid market opened up by those treaties to** thp 
American farmer was cut off, and then we legislated not in the interests of the 
American shop, but of the foreign shop. (Cries of 'That's right,' and cheers ) 
What we want to do is to start the idle mills, start the factories and open the 
markets which have been closed. This we can do by restoring the confidence 
which has been lost. We do not propose to repudiate a single dollar of this 
Government's debt, we do not propose to debase our currency, but we do pro- 
pose to have a stable tariff law and enough money to pay all the obligations of 
the Nation, (Loud cheers.) This is all there is to this question and one week 
from next Tuesday you will have an opportunity to say what you think of the 
means which are offered to cure our iUs. What will your verdict be ?" (Cries 
of 'MoKiNLEY,' 'MoKiNLEY,' and loud cheers.) 

VAN WERT COUNTY PILGRIMS. 

More Ohioans came to Canton to pay their personal respects to Major ^Ic- 
KiNLEY, on Friday, October 23rd. That afternoon a delegation of about 800 
arrived from Van Wert county. The visitors were for the most part farmers. 
They were presented by Hon. Fkank A. Huffman in a neat speech, his 
remarks being cheered frequently by his hearers. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

" Mr. Hoffman and My Fellow Citizens : The people of Ohio are always 
welcome to my home, and none more so than my fellow citizens of Northwest- 
ern Ohio. I recall with peculiar satisfaction the many visits I have made to 
your county and your principal city. I recall with special satisfaction the warm 
support you have given to the cause for which I am designated this year to stand, 
and for the principles of the grand old Republican Party. (Applause.) We 
are engaged in a great National contest, a contest of far more importance than 
any since the great Civil War. We have had no campaign in the lifetime of 
the younger men of this audience at all comparable in its vital effects to tlie 
contest waging this year. Most of this audience have come from farming sec- 
tions and are farmers, who are interested, with the rest of our fellow citizens, 
in having good government — government regulated by law, and government 
over which the laws are supremt. (Applause.) You are interested 
in having peace, good order, public tranquility, and prosperity. What is 
good for you is good for all our fellow citizens, wherever they may be situated. 
What is good for one State is good for another, and what is good for one 
county is good for another. What you farmers want is good times. (Cheers.) 
You will do your sowing, your reaping, your threshing, and when you have 
done all that, you want good markets, just as near your farms as you can have 
them. (Applause.) Some people think that the way to increase markets Un- 
farm products is to depreciate the value of a dollar. Do you believe that? 
(Loud cries of 'No.') Do you believe that cutting down the value of a hun- 
dred-cent dollar to fifty-two cents would increase markets, increase prices, and 
increase the crops? (Cries of 'No, sir.') What you want is not more money 
coined by the mints, but more money in the hands of the people, and the only 
way to get that is to set the people to work to earn money. (Cries of 'That's 
right.') There is no legerdemain in finance, there is no way to get money 
except by earning it, and by setting labor to work. What you want to do is to 

478 



restore the good times of 1892. (Cries of 'That's right,' and loud hurrahs.) 
You want to get the shops open and to restore those times when the working- 
man was so busy that he hardly had time to attend political meetings. There 
has been no trouble of that kind for the last three and a half years. (Loud 
laughter.) We must protect the splendid American markets which we had in 
those times and the American workshop against the workshops of all other 
countries. You can not do your work at home and also have it done abroad. 
(Cries of 'That's right.') You can not have employment yourself if you give 
it to some one over the sea. (Cries of 'True for you, Major.') lam in favor 
of giving it to our own people and of protecting our factories so that there will 
not be an idle man under our flag. This is the doctrine of the Republican 
Party— good times, steady employment, good wages, peace and public order. 
I thank you for this call, and it will give me great pleasure to greet each of 
my old friends personally." (Loud cheers.) 

ANOTHER PENNSYLVANIA DELEGATION. 

One hundred delegates, men and women, who had been attending the con- 
vention, at Pittsburg, of the Directors of the Poor and Charities of the State of 
Pennsylvania, arrived in Canton, Friday, October 23rd, and were escorted to 
Major McKinley's residence by the Citizens' Reception Committee. The visi- 
tors were introduced by ]Mr. John M. Gopf, of Lancaster. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen and My Fellow Citizens: It gives me great 
pleasure to welcome the Overseers and Directors of the Poor of the 
great State of Pennsylvania. I give cordial welcome not only to the men, but 
to the women who have done me the honor to come to my home this morning. 
You are engaged in a gi-eat, unselfish, noble and necessary work, a work that 
requires great care and ability, for it is the pride and glory of our civilization 
that we take care of our poor in every State and Territory of the Union. (Ap- 
plause.) We have in this country the best hospitals for the unfortunate of every 
character. It does credit to our citizenship, civilization and humanity that we 
spend so much for the unfortunate of our population. Your spokesman has very 
well said that the way to decrease the poor list is to increase the opportunity 
for work (applause) and, if there is one thing more than another that the Re- 
publican Party desires, it is that every man beneath our flag who wants to work 
shall have an opportunity to do so. (Applause,) When the opportunity is given 
him to work, the Republican Party means to see, too, that he shall receive pay- 
ment for his labor in good money. (Loud cheers. ) We want every honest day's 
work to be paid in honest dollars. (Cheers.) We want it understood, for all 
time to come, that this is a Government of law, that the law is supreme over 
all, and that our courts, incorruptible as they are, have a high place in the 
affections of the American people, for they stand as a solid bulwark for our 
free institutions. I thank you for this call, and it will give me great pleasure 
to greet each of you personally."' (Great applause.) 

RAILWAY EHPLOYES FROM KANSAS. 

A delegation of five hundred enthusiastic railroad men of the Atchison, 
Topeka and Santa Fe railway system reached Canton, Friday noon, October 
23rd, via the Baltimore and Ohio system. The excursion was given under the 

479 



auspices of the Emporia Railway Men's Sound Money Club, and left Thursday 
morning before daylight. They were on the way more than twenty-four 
hourfe, but, despite the fatigues of the journey, cheered vigorously as Major 
McKiNLEY appeared on the porch. A committee, including H. B. Morris*W. 
0. Simpson and E. "W. Cunningham, was presented to Major McKixlfy in his 
library by Judge Baldwin of the Citizens' Reception Committee. The Troop 
met them at the depot and escorted them to the house. At the conclusion of 
the address each visitor was given a cordial greeting. 

Major ncKinley*s Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens of Kansas: This is indeed a very great pleasure to 
me. You have journeyed farther than any other delegation of the United 
States that has honored me with a visit, and I appreciate your call more 
than lean find words to express. (Loud cheers.) It shows better than any 
words that could be uttered by any man what is in your minds and hearts 
and what your purposes are touching the election to be held on the third day 
of November. (Applause.) You are interested in the prosperity ^^f your 
country. There w^as a time when some persons were in the habit of saying 
that it did not make any difference to the railroad men what kind of financial 
legislation we had, or what kind of a tariff policy we pursued in the United 
States. I have heard it said a thousand times from the public rostrum that 
while the tariff might help the men engaged in the factories., it had no 
influence upon the wages of the men who were engaged upon the great trans- 
portation lines of the country. If any of you believed that statement four 
years ago you do not believe it now. (Cries of 'That's right,' and gi-eat ap- 
plause.) Because you know that upon the general pi-osperity of the country de- 
pends the prosperity of our great railroads, and upon their prosperity depends 
your employment and wages. You will have nothing to do if there is nothing 
to haul (renewed applause and cries of 'You are right' and 'That's so') and the 
more there is to haul the more and steadier employment you will have, and 
the better wages you will get for yourselves and families. In the last three 
and a half years no property has suffered more than railroads. Many of them 
have been compelled to go into bankruptcy ; into the hands of receivers. Many 
of them have been unable to pay either their bonds or the interest on them ; 
and that is only because the change of 1892 settled a paralysis upon the business 
of the United States. Now, what we want to do is to get back our prosperity ; 
whatever will do this is what all of us ought to be in favor of — no matter what 
our occupation or employment. A number of reasons are offered for the con- 
gested condition of business and a number of prescriptions are offered for its 
cure. The most prominent one is that we will all be made prosperous 
and happy if we only open up our mints to the coinage of all the 
silver in the world. (Laughter.) Can any workman or employe of 
the Santa Fe system tell me how the free coinage of silver of 
the world will benefit him? (Loud cries of 'No,' 'No.') Wili it 
increase your traffic or transportation ? Will it increase consumers in 
the East, or the products of the farms of the West ? Will it increase the de 
mand for a single day's labor anywhere ? Will it increase the wages of any 
workingman to have tlfis Government declare that the pieces of silver that you 
can buy anywhere in the world for fifty-two cents shall be coined as dollars by 
the Government without expense, and we fool ourselves by calling tliem dol- 
lars ? Will that help anybody? (Loud cries of 'No,' 'No,' and applause.) 

480 



Will that help any American interest anywhere? All it will do will bo to in- 
crease the production of the silver of the world, and with the increased pro- 
duction of silver will come its certain depreciation, and with that depreci- 
ation will be the still further depreciation of the silver coins of the United 
States. Surely no man wants that. It is not the mints we want to start. It 
is the great industrial enterprises of the United States that must start,- (Ap- 
plause.) You are prosperous men when every factory in the country is busy 
and every workingman employed, making products in the East that are 
shipped to the West, and growing products in the West that are shipped to the 
East. What we want is, first, a market for the products of the great West, so 
that you can haul those products from the AVest to the Eastern shore and not 
have products that we ought to produce at home sent from the other side of 
the Atlantic. You want that as interested railroad men — but you do n^t want 
a cheap dollar at all. This, is not a cheap country. (A voice, 'And this is 
not a cheap crowd,' applause and cries of 'You are right.') And my friend 
says this is not a cheap crowd. (Laughter and applause.) A crowd that will 
journey more than a thousand miles, giving up more than twenty-four hours 
of their time to make the trip, is certainly a crowd that is interested in the 
future prosperity of our common country, which we love so well. (Tremendous 
cheers.) I do not know of any patriotic citizen who wants us to adopt the 
financial system of either Mexico or China We have today the best money in 
the world — the gold dollar, the silver dollar, and the paper dollar, each worth 
a hundred cents, because each has the Government of the United States be- 
hind it. Such money is good enough for us, and we have enough of it, but the 
trouble is it don't circulate Everybody that has a hundred dollars is hoard- 
ing it today, for he don't know what the future is going to bring forth. There 
is not a man in the audience who, making a hundred dollars, is willing to loan 
it out unless he is certain he will get it back, principal and interest. Isn't that 
so? (Cries of 'That's right.') There is not a raili'oad employe who has laid 
aside a hundred dollars that will not hold on to it until he knows what the fu- 
ture currency of the United States is to be. As you feel in regard to your 
savings, so the men with thousands and millions of dollars under their control 
are unwilling to part with that money so long as there is a great party in this 
country threatening to repudiate, not only public debts, but private debts, 
(great applause) and as I have said before. Money does not make business- 
business makes money.' Money does not bring work— work brings money. 
(Applause.) So all the years of my public life I have been advocating an in- 
dustrial policy that will protect the American producer against the cheaper 
products of other countries and other lands. (Cries of 'Hear,' 'Hear,' and 
Hurrah for McKiNLEY.') I have always advocated the policy that protected 
and defended the American workshop (cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and great ap- 
plause) against the products of the alien )r the stranger, who. comes from an- 
other land and owes no allegiance to the flag of our country, and contributes 
not a dollar in taxation to support this great Government of ours. There is no 
place, my fellow citizens, like home, and the United States is our home, and it 
IS a blessed home, the best beneath the sun. (Grea^- applause.) It is our busi- 
ness to make our home an ideal one. For a third of a century the United 
States was an ideal home for all our people, engaged in every occupation, we 
abandoned that splendid policy three years and a half ago, and when we aban- 
doned it we abandoned our prosperity and good times. What we want to do 
today is to get them back again. How can we get them back? (Tremendous 
shouts of 'Elect MoKiNLEY,' followed by continuous cheering.) You can get 

481 



them back by steadily and firmly setting your faces against the doctrine of re- 
pudiating the public or private debts of the country, and against the debase- 
ment of its currency, and voting for the restoration of a policy that will not 
only protect every American citizen and investment,but will put enough money 
into the Public Treasury every twenty-four houi-s to pay every debt of the Gov 
ernment of the United States. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and great cheering ) 
Now, my fellow citizens, I have talked to you as long as I ought. Other del- 
egations are coming. What will Kansas do on the third day of November? (Here 
the crowd shouted 'Kansas, Kansas, rip, ra, re, she is for Mc-Kin-lee 'amidst 
tremendous applause.) My fellow citizens, I shall watch for the returns on the 
evening of November third, and I trust that the glorious old State of Kansas 
wiU vote on the side of the country, on the side of public honor, and for that 
public policy that looks after our own interests and lets other nations take 
care of themselves. I thank you all and it will give me extreme pleasure to 
grasp each of you by the hand." (Great cheering.) 

FROM ARHSTRONQ COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 

On the afternoon of October 21st, a delegation of three thousand men, 
women and children from Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, marched up North 
Market street to the McKinley home. The delegation came in three sections 
with bands playing and banners flying. Congressman Heiner, of Kittanning,' 
made a brief address of congratulation. Egbert Maysmith, in behalf of the 
plate glass workers, presented Major and Mrs. McKinley with a handsome 
mirror, the handiwork of the mill workers. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

" Mr. Heiner and My Fellow Citizens : I am honored by this visit from 
my fellow citizens of Armstrong county, Pennsylvania. I am glad to meet the 
men of all occupations in that fine county. We are engaged this year in a great 
political contest, and it is the interest you feel in the outcome of it that brings 
you together in such a large assembly at my home today. It is because you 
have made up your minds (a voice, 'To vote for McKinley') on the side of the 
question you mean to vote for this year. (Cries of 'That's right,' and great 
applause.) You know in your own experience, and from what you have suffered 
in your employments and in your homes, what this doctrine of free trade has 
done for you. (Cries of 'We do, it has done nothing for us, but make us poor.') 
You know, my fellow countrymen, that four years ago you were enjoying a 
prosperity greater than you had ever enjoyed before. (Cries of 'That's correct' 
and That's right.') The workingmen of this country in that yea^* had the 
largest share in the largest products that were ever produced in this country or 
in any other country on the globe. All that has changed. The people of this 
country thought they wanted a change of policy. It is their right, it is their 
privilege— the proud privilege of the people of the United States— to inaugurate 
any public policy which they believe is best for them. They have tried this 
policy and they are called upon, or will be, in the next ten days, to express 
their judgment upon that change. What will the vote of Armstrong county be? 
(Vociferous shouts of 'For McKinley,' and 'Pennsylvania three hundred thousand 
majority,' followed by continuous cheering lasting several minutes.) Your 
county presents within its own borders the best possible evidences of what a jn-o- 
tective tariff will do. Twenty-six years ago we did not manufacture any plate 
glass in the United States. It was all manufactured in some other counti-y. 

482 



There were people who said we never could manufacture plate glass in the 
United States. (Cries of 'They got left,' and great laughter and applause.) That 
there was something about the atmosphere that prevented us from manufactur- 
ing plate glass. (Great laughter and applause.) And yet, in twenty-six years, 
we have become almost the greatest manufacturing Nation of plate-glass in the 
world. (Tremendous applause, and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') The 
price has been constantly falling, so that it is within the reach of the gi-eat mass of 
the people in this country. We have demonstrated, and you have demonstrated 
in your own county, that we can manufacture tin plate in the United States. (Tre- 
mendous applause.) They said we could not do that ; we said we could, and we 
did. The fact is, there is nothing the people of the United States can not do — 
if you give them half a chance. (Continued cheering.) Now, what we want to 
do is to restore the policy we abandoned four years ago. Whether we can get 
back to that high water mark or not, I do not know. (A voice, 'But we do, 
though.') But the only way to approach it is to overturn the policy that led us 
away from it. Some people seem to think that the way to return to prosperity 
is through the mints of the United States. (Great applause and cries of 'We 
know better,' and 'No more mints for ns.') Some people seem to think that the 
way to keep up prices is to dilute the money of the country in which prices are 
paid. (Laughter and applause.) Some people seem to think that whenever the 
price of a product go down, then the value of the money ought to go down, 
(laughter and applause) and whenever the price of wheat falls then the value of 
the dollar must fall. (Great laughter.) They seem to think that whenever a 
change of price, or the cost of production in this country, leads to lower prices, 
the standard of money must go down. We do not believe any such thing. If you 
had lowered the value of money as you have lowered the price of plate-glass in the 
United States, what would its value be today? What we want is an 
honest, unchanging standard of value. We want an honest dollar for honest 
labor. All we ask in this country is an opportuity to earn honest dollars. My 
fellow citizens, I want to express the great gratification I have had by the fre- 
quent calls from your great State of phenomenal Republican majorities. If 
every man from Pennsylvania, who has visited me in the last two months, will 
vote the Republican ticket, we will have a larger majority than you gave even 
to General Hastings two years ago. (Applause.) I want to thank Mr. May- 
BMiTH and the men of your great glass works for this beautiful gift, a specimen 
of their handiwork, \^ hich they have brought me today. I esteem it the greatest 
honor that could come to me to have the confidence of the men who toil in my 
own country. I appreciate the confidence they have given, and the sympathy they 
have expressed for me, and their assurances of support, more- than I can find 
words to worthily and adequately express. I thank you all from the bottom of 
my heart for this visit. I wish you a pleasant stay in the city of Canton, and a 
safe return to your homes." (Three vociferous cheers.) 

DELEGATIONS FROM EIGHT STATES. 

Saturday, October 24th, was not notable for the greatest number of speeches 
in a single day, nor did it eclipse previous records in the sizre of the delega- 
tions, but the attendance was large. The people came steadily, commencing 
early in the morning, before the city was astir, and continuing until late in the 
evening. There was at no time a jam completely blocking the streets, 
but there was an almost continuous stream of people to and from the McKinley 
home, and collectively, the many delegations, combined into twelve audiences,. 

483 



constituted an enormous number. The remarkable feature of the day was the 
long distance which the travelers came to pay their respects to the Kepublicau 
standard bearer, as the majority came from beyond the borders of the State of 
Ohio. They were present in organized bodies from seven States, and unorgan- 
nized from several others. New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Mis- 
souri, Kansas and Iowa each contributed delegations. The majority of those 
who reached Canton, Saturday, had left their homes on Friday, and some as 
early as Thursday night. Many traveled over a thousand miles. One of 
the notable delegations was railroad men from Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and 
Indiana. The first special train of 'delegates to Canton,' arrived at 5:45 o'clock 
in the morning on the Fort Wayne railroad. It brought the Business Lien's 
McKlnley and Sound Money Club, of Reading, and the McKinley Club, of 
Lebanon, Pennsylvania. There were three hundred and fifty persons in the party. 
The Lebanon Band came along as escort. The crowd was enthusiastic and paraded 
the streets after obtaining breakfast, cheering all the while. Soon after nine 
o'clock the delegation was escorted to the McKinley home by the Reception 
Committee and Troop and there introduced, ex-Mayor J. R. Kennedy speaking 
for Reading, and J. Victor Smith for Lebanon. 

Hajor McKlnley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens: I give hearty and sincere welcome to the people of 
Lebanon, Berks and Chester counties, Pennsylvania. The heart of the American 
people is always right, you can safely submit any great public question with con- 
fidence to them. Mr. Lincoln once said that there was no safer tribunal on earth 
than the American people, and 'if the Almighty Ruler of the universe is on our 
side, or on your side,' that side which he favored would surely prevail. (Ap- 
plause.) The aspiration of the American people is for advancement towards the 
realization of the highest destiny for this, the freest Government on earth. 
What our people want is an opportunity for work, an opportunity for honest 
labor, to develop the great resources which God has given us; an opportunity 
to work out a high and glorious destiny, not only for ourselves but for all the 
universe — for, the higher the destiny we achieve for ourselves, the better and the 
more we benefit all mankind. (Applause.) Now, it occurs to me, that before 
the people of this country can be expected to have confidence in that wing of 
the Democratic party that is now in control of its organization, before we can 
be expected to entrust it with further power or control of the Government, and 
accept its promise, that with free silver will come better times to all of us — 
before we do that, it seems to me that the Democratic party ought to make 
good the ills it entailed upon us in the last three and a half years. (Great ap- 
plause.) They can hardly expect us to have confidence in their present pre- 
scription (great laughter) when the prescription which they gave usj in 1892,^ 
and which they insisted was the cure for all our troubles, was so complete a 
failure. They now say the present prescription, entirely different from the old 
one, will correct all our difficulties and it does seem to me that they are asking 
a great deal of the confidence of the American people. (Laughter and applause.) 
We can not very well forget the former deception, for the people were deceived. 
Their policy not only injured the people of this country in their occupations, 
not only injured the great manufacturing and mining and farming industies of 
the country, but it almost wrecked the Public Treasury. (Great cheering and 
cries of 'That's so,' and 'You are right.') Now I do not need to make any argu- 
ment to the men of Pennsylvania. They know all about this question. (A voice 

484 



'You bet, we've been there,' and great applause.) And I think they are all 
i-eady to vote- (Great applause and cries of 'You are right, we are,' anC.'And 
we'll vote the right way.') Are you ready to vote? (Loud shouts of 'Yes,' 'Yes,' 
we wish it was tomorrow.') Then, my fellow citizens, it is needless for me to 
say another word, as another delegation is waiting, but I will be glad to meet 
and welcome you all." (Three cheers.) 

CHICAGO BUSINESS MEN. 

The second formal address of the day was made to several hundred mem- 
bers of the Hardwood Lumber Exchange and Builders' and Traders' Exchange, 
of Chicago. They arrived over the Cleveland Terminal and Valley road and were 
met by the Grand Ai-my Band as well as by the Citizens' Reception Committee 
and Canton Troop. The committee in charge of the delegation was L. W, 
Fuller, J. R. Laixg and Messrs. Yinxebge, Kimball, and Hikes. Hakvey S. 
Hoyden made the introductory address. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow CiTZEKs: lam indeed pleased to meet this body of representa- 
tive business men of the city of Chicago. I am glad to be assured by your 
spokesman that your great city by the inland sea will give to the Republican 
cause the largest majority of any city in the American Union. (Applause.) I 
am glad to note that your registration is larger than that of any other city of 
the United States, and that that registration means there is to be an increased 
vote for sound money and National honesty on the third day of November. 
What we want, whether we are Democrats or Republicans, is a return of confi- 
dence — confidence that will start the wheels of industry, confidence that will 
bring the money out from those strong boxes, to which your spokesman has re- 
ferred, and invest it in productive enterprises that will give employment to 
labor, wages to the workingmen and prosperity to all our people. (Cheers.) 
"We know, my fellow citizens, that at one time we had this confidence ; we know 
when we lost it and we know how we lost it. We know also, how to get it back 
again (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and 'That's right,' and great applause.) We 
can not get confidence back again by threatening repudiation. (Great ap- 
plause.) We can not get it back by debasing the currency with which we do 
our business. No man will loan anybody money who has openly declared that 
after he gets it he proposes to pay it back in fifty-cent dollai's. Isn't that true? 
(Loud shouts of 'Yes,' 'Yes,' 'that's true.') That's the proposition of the political 
party which stands opposed to us this year. Confidence, my fellow citizens, is 
the capital of the world. We do business on confidence largely ; we do not 
transact all of our business with actual money, as every business man knows. 
We do it by checks — by what we may call credit money. You draw your check 
on a bank and the man who receives it from you has confidence, first, that you 
have the money in that bank, and, second, that the bank is good and will pay 
the check when presented. But when confidence is gone, then before you can 
get credit for that check it must be known that you have the money there, and 
the bank is solvent. This is the condition we have been in for the last three 
years and a half. AVe want to get away from that condition ; we want a return 
of business confidence and to do that which will raise enough money every 
month in this country from a protective tariff and internal revenue, to pay 
evei'y obligation of the Government and stop going in debt. We want a policy 
that will encourage American industry, enterprise, energy, skill and genius. 

485 



(Applause.) It is the bu&iness of the American people to look out for them- 
selves, for nobody will look out for them. We have discovered during the last 
three and a half years that if we do not keep business, our business will not keep 
us. T thank you for this call. I congratulate you upon the magnificent 
progress Chicago has made, for the greatest achievements known to the cities 
of the world have been those of the great city of Chicago. I am glad to know 
that this year your people in Chicago and in the great State of Illinois, irrespec- 
tive of party, Democrats and Republicans alike, are vying with each other in 
patriotic endeavor to maintain the public honor, and sustain the Nation's flag 
unsullied, and unquestioned, forever more. I thank you and bid you good 
morning." (Three cheers were then given for "Governor McKixley" and 
three more for Mrs. McKinley.) 

TWO DELEGATIONS IN ONE. 

Two delegations were united for the third audience addressed by Major 
McKixLEY, Saturday, October 24th. One of these came from the State of New 
York representing Chemung, Steuben and Allegheny counties, and included 
residents of the towns of Elmira, Corning, Bath, Hornellsville, Cuba and 
Jamestown. The other delegation came from McKean county, Pennsylvania, 
under the auspices of the Veterans' McKinley Club and the Young Men's 
McKinley Club, of Bradford. District Attorney AV. W. Clark spoke for the 
New Yorkers and W. W. Poxd, of Bradford, for the Keystone visitors. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Cxtizexs : I am very glad to find Pennsylvania and New York 
united this year, and vying with each other as to the size of Kepublican 
majorities they will give one week from next Tuesday. I could not take 
sides with either State in that matter, but I wish both success. (Loud 
laughter.) You have my sincere thanks for this demonstration and are most 
welcome to my home. Steuben county represents not only your State in its 
diversified interests, agricultural, commercial and manufacturing, but affords a 
good example of the advantages which you enjoyed under the protective tariff 
policy, and which our people abandoned by their votes in 1892. Under its 
beneficent influence your county, and the city of Hornellsville, steadily advanced 
and became an important manufacturing center, with, I believe, manufactures 
of shoes, leather, gloves, silk goods, wire fencing, electric supplies and mowing 
machines ; but it was, perhaps, not especially distinguished from other cities of 
Southern New York, such as Binghampton, Clean and Jamestown, that come to 
my mind as illustrating the special advantages which the policy of home industry 
and development brought us. How has it been, my fellow citizens, since 
1893? Have you enjoyed the same degree of prosperity since then? (Cries of 
*No,' 'No.') Well, I take it that you know the reason why and any comment, 
therefore, seems unnecessary. You know that in 1892 we were enjoying the 
greatest prosperity the world ever saw and then, by the voice of the people, 
the policy changed under which we had lived for more than thirty years, and 
there came a disastrous change to the business of the country. Everybody 
knows that. The great heart of this country yearns for a return of that pros- 
l>erity. I do not know that we shall be able to bring it all back again, but we 
can overturn the policy that deprived us of it and take back tlie policy that 
gave it to us. (Loud cheers and cries of 'We'll do it.') You have demon- 
strated in your county of Steuben what was believed to be impossible, namely, 

486 



that you could make as good cut glass as any that is made anywhere, and your 
cement is distinguished above all others. (Applause. ) You want those industries 
promoted. This is also true of the industries of other States. What is good for 
New York is good for Pennsylvania ; what is good for one section of the country 
is good for another ; what will make the citizens of the North prosperous will 
make the citizens of the South prosperous. It is the country's business and our 
chief concern that our great family is protected from the competition of the 
outside world. (Cheers.) What we want is to do our own work, pay our own 
wages to our own workingmen, and we have discovered that just to the extent 
that we have our work done in Europe, to that extent we deprive the Amei'i- 
can workingman of the wages which are his by right. We must return to that 
policy which protects our own workingmen, and I make no apology to any man 
anywhere for having through all my public life stood for the protection of the 
American workingman and American indlistries. (Loud cheers.) I want a 
tariff high enough to protect our industries against foreign industries, which 
compete with ours, (cheers) a tariff that will bring cheer and happiness to 
every American home. A tariff high enough to raise enough money for this 
great Government to pay as it goes. (Cheers.) Why, what have we got after 
three years and a half experience under the policy inaugurated in 1892 ? 
(Loud cries of 'Nothing.') I hear voices say 'Nothing.' Well, we have 
our votes left (cheers) and we still have the skill and labor of the American 
people. We have the same men and manufacturers, and we propose to set 
them to work (loud cheers) and, when we have set them to work, we do not 
propose that they shall be cheated by a short dollar. When <ve work all d.iy 
for our employer and night comes, we want to be paid in dollars that won t 
change in value before morning. We ought to go to our homes in New York 
and Pennsylvania feeling that we can hold that money as long as we want to do 
so without any fear of its depreciating in value. This is the kind of money we 
have now, whether gold, silver, or paper, every dollar worth a hundred cents, 
and every one good in every market place in the world. (Cheers.) But an- 
other delegation is waiting, and I am sure you are all ready to vote. I need, 
therefore, do nothing more than to thank you heartily for this kind visit.' 
(Loud cheers.) 

DELEGATION OF RAILWAY EMPLOYES. 

The special train which came in on the Fort Wayne road brought visitors 
from Horton and other Kansas towns, from Trenton, Missouri, and vicinity, 
■from Elden, Iowa, and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The party embraced men from 
all branches of railway interests, from section hand to general passenger 
agent. The party was accompanied by the Horton, Kansas, Band. The spokes- 
man for the the party was Major T. J. Andersox, of Topeka, Kansas. O. J. 
RiNGE, of Trenton, Missouri, spoke on behalf of the Iowa and Missouri con- 
tingent. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizexs : I am more than glad to welcome to my home the 
employes of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, coming as 
you do from those three great imperial States, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. 
It is a remarkable tribute to a political cause, that so large a body of citizens 
should travel a thousand miles to testify their devotion to the country and to the 
principles which the Republican Party represents this year. You have come 

487 



from no idle curiosity, but because you have a deep concern for your own indi- 
vidual welfare and for the prosperity of our common country. (Applause.) 
You are here because you are citizens of the freest Government in the world, 
equal citizens ; and because one week from next Tuesday, you will exercise that 
majestic power of sovereignty residing in every individual elector of this Repub- 
lic, but in the citizenship of no otli^r nation of the world. (Cheers.) By that 
sovei-eignty you will express your purpose, so far as policies and administrations 
are concerned, for this Government, for the next four years. You are here be- 
cause, somehow, you feel, and deeply feel, that things have been going wrong 
with us for nearly four years, and because in your hearts you want to right that 
wrong if possible. We may differ about how to right it, we may differ about 
minor policies of government and about internal affairs, but we do not differ 
aboutthegreat vital question that this country is suffering, and that some remedy 
is required that will speedily bring back to us the prosperity from which we 
foolishly ran away four years ago. (Great applause and cries of 'We'll bring it 
back, too.') Some people seem to think that the way to bring back this pros- 
perity is to debase the currency of the country. Some people seem to think that 
we can bring back work and wages, traffic and transportation, by calling fifty 
•cents worth of silver a dollar. (Laughter and applause ) Does anybody in this 
audience believe that? (Tremendous shouts of 'No,' 'No,' 'Never.') They say, too, 
that coercion is going on, (Laughter.) The only coercion that is operating 
in the United States today i>< that of reason, conscience, and experience. (Im- 
mense applause and cries of 'That's right.') This is the mighty force that leads, 
but never drives ; and all this talk about coercion comes from a source that four 
years ago deceived you. (Renewed cheering.) Is not that so, my fellow citi- 
zens? (Cries of 'You bet" 'Yes, sir,' and 'That's right.') If they want tostrike 
abalance with us, this 'Popocratic party,' we are willing to do it. We are willing 
. to take the thirty-three years of Republican control of this Government when 
we ran it upon a protective tariff and a sound money basi«, and ascertain what 
those two policies have done for the American people, for you, for the men on 
the railroads, the men in the factories and in the mines. And contrast any three 
years of that period with what the free trade policy has done for the American 
people in the last three years and a half, for the balance is found to be largely in 
our favor. (Prolonged cheering. ) If they want us to believe that this remedy of 
a fifty-two cent dollar will be a cure for all our ill«, I insist that they make up the 
l«ss they put upon us during their present Administration. (Great applause.) 
What you railroad men want is to put all your ears to work, to turn all the 
wheels of your great railroads ; and you know that your wheels will not revolve 
unless the wheels of industry are started in the shops and factories. (Cheers.) 
Also, no man knows better than the railroad men, that when trains are taken off 
men are taken off tlie payroll (tremendous applause and cries of 'That's right,' 
and 'You're correct') and that trains are never taken off when tliey have any busi- 
ness to do. None of you want to be sidetracked (great laughter and cheering) 
and every one of you wants to be on the payroll, (a voice, 'We want to 
be on the main line') and on the main line, too. (Great laughter and 
cheering.) You are on the main line this year. (Tremendous applause and 
cries of 'You are right we are.') Coercion ! Why, you would luive to coerce 
men from thinking, reading, and feeling, to keep them away from the cause of 
-country and public honor this year. You would have to make them insensible to 
what they have experienced in their own lives under this policy. (Applause.) 
Now, what we are in favor of, is getting back confidence, which lies at the foun- 
dation of all business, and without which it is stagnated. We have had little 



or no confidence during the last three years and a half, and as though partial 
free trade and business paralysis were not enough, our opponents now raise as 
their shibboleth that what we need is to adopt the Mexican or Chinese system of 
finance. (Cries of 'Never,' and 'We won't have that.') No, I answer, forever 
no. We want that confidence that will lead the business men to trust in the 
future and make plans for their year's work. We want that confidence that 
will induce the men of capital to pay their money out, having faith that it will 
be paid back to them in as good coin as they loan, principal and interest ; and 
until you get that you will have no permanent prosperity or business activity. 
AVe have in this country, today, the best money in the world, but the trouble is 
we do not get enough of it individually ; and the reason for that is because we 
haven't work. The thing the people of the country are looking for this year is 
the lost job (vociferous cheering) and you can't get back the lost job by de- 
stroying business. (Cries of 'That's right.') You destroy business when you 
destroy confidence and you destroy confidence when you defiantly propose to 
pay off debts, public and private, in a depreciated currency. (Tremendous ap- 
plause.) Now, what will Missouri do this year? (Vociferous shouts of 'Elect 
McKiNLEY.') What will Kansas do this year? (Shouts of 'Elect McKinley,' and 
'Give you 50,000 majority.') What will Iowa do this year? (Tremendous yells 
end cries of 'Give you 100,000 majority.') You are all fighting for the same 
. cause ; moved by the same considerations ; inspired by the same splendid prin- 
ciples. You want this great Government of ours, the freest and the best in the 
world, the Government that for nearly a third of a century after the war made 
more splendid progi'ess and matchless advancement than any other nation of 
the world, that gave more to labor and industry than under any other nation 
since the world began, to get back to that policy of confidence — confidence in 
each other, confidence in the future, confidence in our country — and spurn 
that doctrine that would array class against class, the rich against the 
poor, or the employe against the employer. (Applause.) When you support 
pernicious doctrines, then there is chaos and business paralysis. I would 
rather teach the doctrine of the common brotherhood of man. We are all 
equal, under the law, equal in privilege beneath that starry banner of 
the free, equal in possibilities, and equal in opportunity. (Renewed applause 
and cheers.) If the older men in this audience have not realized all they 
hoped for in their own lives, they have boys and girls for whom they desire a 
grand future. I beg you shut not the door of opportunity in their young faces. 
Encourage their ambitions ; inspire tliem to struggle to the front ; under our 
form of Government they can get the highest title which it is possible to 
achieve, that of being an American. (Tremendous applause.) You are proud 
of your States, as you justly have a right to be proud of them, but you are 
prouder still to be citizens of the greatest Government in this world. (Great 
applause.) I thank you for this call. It is an inspiration. It is an encourage- 
ment not only to me but to every patriotic citizen everywhere that you should 
travel thousands of miles that you might give evidence of your devotion to the 
great cause of protection, reciprocity, sound money, the supremacy of law, 
public honor and good government. I am very glad to meet you, and it will 
give me extreme pleasure to grasp the hands of these Western friends of mine, 
Democrats and Republicans, for all are patriots this year." (Loud cheering.) 

A GUERNSEY COUNTY DELEGATION. 

The fifth address was delivered to a delegation from Cambridge and 
Guernsey county, Ohio, composed of iron and steel workers, tin-plate mill em- 



pbyes, farmers and citizens in general, some five Iiundrcd in all, marching to tlie 
music of the Cambridge Band. State Senator Joiix H. Morgan spuke for theiii. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens: The faces about me of those who have called at 
my home, this morning, are not unfamiliar to me. I have met most, if not all 
of you, before (cries of 'Yes, sir,') and when I have met you it has usually been 
in the midst of a political contest where parties und principles were striving for 
supremacy in State or Nation, and I believe that in the many visits I have made 
tothetin-miKmen of Cambridge, you will acquit me today of ever liaving under- 
taken to deceive, or mislead you. (Cries of 'That's right.') I have alvnys pro 
claimed the doctr'ne of a protective tar.ff. I do not abate one bit of my feith 
in that gn a principle. I believe in self preservation for this Government of 
oui-s ; in a tariff that protects our products ; that maintains the American scal-^ 
of wages ; that gives steady and constant employment to labor, and that pro- 
vides enough money for the Government without the necessity of its going con- 
stantly into debt. (Cheers.) I believe in chat gi-eat principle now. Whenever 
a man is thrown out of employment the wage fund is reduced, the fund tliat be- 
longs to labor, and I could not calculate for this audience the millions of dollars 
thus lost to that fund in this country in the last three and a half years, or the 
millions lost to your families and homes and the thousands of others like you. 
Whenever the lires go out in factory, or mill, cheer goes out of the home of the 
American workingman, (applause) and whenever you want to bring comfort 
back to the Amercan fireside, you must put fires in American furnaces and put the 
American workingman to work. (Applause. When we ail have work we come 
to the home market of the United States — the best market in the world, and 
make it a cash market, for we pay as we go. Now, my fellow citizens, I remem- 
ber when I addressed you a year or two ago, I asked you to support Mr. Morgan, 
your fellow workingman, for State Senator, and you did so, and I said to you 
then that the worKingmen had an opportunity to show that there was no 
such thing as class or caste in the United States, and that any man from the 
mine, or from '.h > mil', might aspire to tne highest place in thegift of this people 
as freely as anybody else And f you do not get that yourselves, you might 
hope for your boys to get it. (Laughter and applause.) I do not teach the 
doctrine of hate. I prefer the doctrine of hope. Never give up as long as 
you have the ballot." (Loud cheers.) 

PirrSBLRQ COLORED PEOPLE. 

The next audience before whom Major McKinlby appeared was composed of 
Afro-American residents of Pittsburg, including mill men, miners, professional 
men, and skilled and unskilled workmen. Their spokesman was Hon. Wim.tam M. 
Randolph, Republican nominee for Presidential Elector in the Twenty-second 
Pennsylvania district, M'ho was introduced by Dr. A. T. Hill, of Pittsburg. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I give you warm welcome to my home, and I can 
not refrain from expressing to you my pleasure at the words so fitly, so beauti- 
fully, so eloquently uttered by the gentleman who speaks in your behalf today. 
I congratulate you and him upon the marked distinction which the Republicans 
of Pennsylvania have given him in the pending contest. (Applause.) I am 

490 



glad to greet you as my fellow citizens. It is our pride and glory that in free 
America we know neither race, color, eiass, or caste distinction ; the native 
born and the naturalized, black and white, all have equal rights under our Con- 
stitutional laws. They are equal in responsibility, opportunity and possibili- 
ties. You have always been true to your country (applause) and that is a 
great distinction to any race. You have always followed the dear old flag 
wherever it led and at whatever cost to yourselves. I am glad to know you are 
enrolled in the ranks of the Republican Pai-ty, and that we can count upon you 
as willing allies in this great contest for the National honor, the supremacy of 
our courts and the preservation of law and order." (Great applause.) 

THE SCHOOL IS NEXT TO THE HOHE. 

A party of about fifty school teachers, nearly all ladies,, who came fron? the 
Northeastern Ohio Teachers' Institute, in session in Cleveland, was addressed 
separately. They were presented by Major F. C. Bryax, of Akron, a member 
of the Board of Education in that city. There was no formal speech making 
and aside from shaking hands with each of the callers Major MoKinley only 
made a few impromptu remarks, bidding the teachers godspeed in their life's 
work. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" Fellow Citizens: It seems to me I might well be excused from making 
a speech, as I have already met and welcomed many delegations today ; but I 
can not refrain from greeting the teachers who have so kindly assembled at my 
home. I assure you I have the most profound respect for the men and women 
engaged in the noble calling of educating the youth of the country. Next to 
the home, the school lies at the foundation of all that is good and exalted in 
our citizenship and civilization. I beg to express my great pleasure at meeting 
you, and hope you will excuse me from further remarks." (Great applause.) 

AKRON'S LADY STENOGRAPHERS. 

The school teachers were followed by about fifty lady stenographers from 
the ofiices of the Goodrich and Whitman and Barnes Companies, of Akron, Ohio. 
They were introduced by Miss Lea Carbough, who said: "The stenographers 
of Akron realize as much as any one else the necessity of electing you. Major 
McKinley, to the Presidency. It is to our interest, as well as to the interest of 
every other occupation and profession. While we can not vote for you, we 
will use our best efforts to induce those who can to do so." They brought a 
bunch of splendid yellow chrysanthemums, tied with a ribbon inscribed, "Mrs. 
McKinley. You are always mistress of our hearts ; we want to see you mis- 
tress of the White House." Mrs. McKinley received this delegation in her 
rooms. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

" Ladies : I have received at my home a good many delegations in the last 
two months, representing every occupation, every calling and profession known 
in our country except the one which honors me with its presence today. This 
is the first call I have had from the stenographers, but you are most welcome 
and I gi-eet you as interested, along with the men of the country, in the right 
ful settlement of the important public questions which are now confronting 
the American people, I am glad to know that it has been demonstrated in 

491 



the "United States that the v, of the country can do so many things and 

do them equally well with thy men, and I believe when they perform like 
service to men, they ought to be paid as well. (Applause.) I have always be- 
lieved it was right— I am sure it is just— and I hope the time will come 
when the public will everywhere recognize it as an arct of equity and justice 
to all the women who work for their living throughout the United States. I 
am glad to meet and greet you and trust you will have a pleasant stay in Can- 
ton and a safe return to your homes." (Applause.) 

EMPLOYES OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILWAY. 

One of the largest delegations of Saturday, October 24th, was made up of 
railroad men employed by the Pennsylvania Company, east of Crestline ; by the 
Toledo and Ann Arbor Railway ; by the Toledo and Hocking Valley Railway ; and 
by roads entering Tiffin and Mansfield. They arrived on special trains over the 
Fort Wayne road during the afternoon. All branches of railroad work were 
represented in the party which marched to music by the Crestline Cornet Band. 
The crowd by this time was large and speaking from the porch had to be 
abandoned, the stand on the lawn being brought into use. The spokesman for 
the party was R. M. Bukgess, foreman of the Pennsylvania Company's freight 
house at Toledo. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens : It gives me very great pleasure to receive this 
visit from the employes of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, I know some- 
thing of the cities you represent — Mansfield, Crestline and Toledo, and of the 
great railway system, on which you are employed. Without being invidious as 
to other roads, I think all will concede that it is one of the greatest railroad com- 
panies of the world. (Applause.) I am glad to observe the interest which you 
feel in the pending election. I rejoice that the railroad men of the country be- 
lieve in a sound, honest, undepreciating dollar; that when they have performed 
service for the railway they want to receive dollars that are good when 
they are received and good for all time. This is the kind of money we have 
today. Every kind of dollar is just as good as any other dollar and there is no 
better money anywhere in the world. What you want, in common with your 
fellow citizens, everywhere, is employment. (Applause.) You want your rail- 
roads to be busy. When they are, the men are busy, and when the men are 
busy they receive wages which bring comfort aiwi happiness to their homes. 
(Applause.) When the railroad business of the country is dull, then labor is 
unemployed, and when trains are taken off the roads, then great numbers of 
railroad men are taken of the payroll. You know from experience that unless 
the country is prosperous, in every part or corner of it, that you suffer as quick- 
ly as any other industry, for the railroads are a certain barometer of tlie busi- 
ness of the country. Now, what we want in the United States, no matter what 
our politics have been in the past, is more business activity. We want all our 
spindles running; all our mines i-unning and all our factories busy ; and when 
they are all at work and products are being made, you have employment in 
hauling those products from one end of the country to the other. We want, in 
short, a return of such prosperity as we had in 1892. I do not think we can get 
it back at once, but I hope we may speedily and fully restore it. Certnirily the 
only step in the direction of getting it back is to overturn the policy that took 
it from us (continuous cheers) and you know what step that is. (Cries oi • You 

492 



bet we do.') No sooner had the American people declared in their might in 1892, 
that they proposed to change the Administration and its settled and tried policies, 
than the country felt the shock from one end to the other. Distrust settled 
upon every enterprise. Men who had already invested their capital in shops 
and factories, when that election was over, failed to equip them. Men who had 
given oi-ders for work, cancelled them, because they did not know what the 
future had in store, and for three years and a half, the business of this country 
has been waiting — waiting for confidence, waiting for stability, waiting for wise 
legislation to protect our own industres and enterprises against those of all the 
world besides. (Applause.) My fellow citizens, I know not what your policies 
may be, but I believe in a protective tariff. (Prolonged cheering.) I believe 
we ought to protect every industry and enterprise in the United States against 
like industries and enterprises of the old world. (Cries of 'That's right,' 
and tremendous applause.) I believe that we should make our own goods 
in the United States (cries of 'That's right') and employ our own labor. 
When we do that we will have plenty to do, not only in the factory, but on all 
the railroads of the country, and then, more than all that, we never want to 
consent' to do our business with a dollar that is short, even a penny, of being a 
one hundred cent dollar. We want every dollar as good as gold and we will 
always have it so. We want to stand by the public honor and credit, for the 
supremacy of law, and incorruptible courts of justice (renewed applause) which 
are our bulwarks in every time of trouble. (Loud cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and 
'That's the stufT.') We want a sound Government, a sound Treasui-y, sound 
railroads, sound currency, and sound laws. You are to determine, one week from 
next Tuesday, whether you want the continuance of the industrial policy we 
now have in the United States or prefer to change it; whether we shall enter 
upon a system of finance that will debase our currency, and degrade our credit, 
or continue to have good, honest, one hundred cent dollars with which to 
do the business of this great country. (Cries of 'That's what we want,' and 
'Hurrah for McKinley and sound money.') I am glad, my fellow citizens, to 
know that the railroad employes of the United States are in earnest upon this 
subject. I have already spoken this morning to railroad men from Iowa, 
Kansas and Missouri, the employes of the Chicago, Eock Island and Pacific 
Railway Company. I have spoken to thousands and tens of thousands of rail- 
road men during the last two months, and have been glad to note from their 
earnest faces that they believe in the great principles for which the Republican 
Party stands this year — principles which involve the honor, prosperity and 
glory of our common country. This is our country and nobody else's, and if 
we don't protect it ourselves, nobody else will. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 
'That's the stuff,' and great applause.) If we don't take care of our business, 
our business will not take care of us. (Cries of 'No,' 'No,' and 'You are right.') 
Therefore, I favor a policy that is purely American. (Continued cheering.) That 
is patriotic from beginning to end. A policy that would as soon think of lower- 
ing that great emblem of freedom (pointing to an American flag) as to sully 
our credit or National honor. I thank you for this pleasant call and trust you 
may have a pleasant time in our little city and a safe return to your homes." 
(Three cheers.) 

A NORTHWESTERN OHIO DELEGATION. 

Five hundred Ohioans came in a body from the counties of Auglaize, Allen 
and Henry, principally from the towns of Lima and Spencerville, Saturday, Oc- 
tober 24th. Bands from both of these places came with the visitors, among 

493 



whom wei-e farmers, business men, professional men and citizens from almost 
every walk of life. Their spokesman was George R. Davis, Esq., of Wapako- 
neta. 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens : It was generous on your part to come to see me, 
inasmuch as I am not doing this year what I formerly did in going about to see 
you. I am very glad to meet my old friends of Auglaize, Allen and Henry 
counties, before whom I have stood so many times speaking for the cause the 
same glorious cause, for which our party stands this year The difference be- 
tween the contest now and former contests is that we can count on our side 
hundreds, thousands and even hundreds of thousands of good old fashioned 
Democrats, who are with us in the fight to maintain public order and the finan- 
cial integi'ity of the United States. (Applause.) We are glad to have them in 
association with us. Patriotism is never partisan ; it is above that plane. One 
thing has never been said and never will be said of the Government of the 
United States, and that is that it is a Government of repudiation. (Applause.) 
We have always paid evei-y dollar of our public obligations, whether contracted 
in peace or war, in the highest and best form of money known to the civilized 
world. We never stopped to inquire what the letter of the contract might be, 
we only knew that any agi-eement by the United States Government meant 
that it must be paid in one hundred cent dollars. We do not propose to com- 
mence now, after a hundred and twenty years of glorious history, of glorious life, 
and of glorious achievements, to repudiate our obligations, public or private. 
(Cheers.) We do not propose to attempt to ever do our business with a dollar 
one cent short of a hundred cents. We do not propose to accept our financial 
standard from either Mexico or China. (Cheers.) We propose to run our 
finances exactly as we have always run them, with fairness and absolute integ- 
rity on the part of the Government and people, and we propose another thing, and 
if the people are with us, we shall realize it. We propose to protect ourselves 
against the products of the old world ; to uphold our own factories rather than 
build up factories for any other nation on the face of the globe. (Applause.) 
The American workshop, the American farm, the American factory and the 
American people, of whatever occupation or calling, are our chief concern, and 
we must see to it that there is no idle man in America, and that none of our 
work is done in Europe so long as there is a man in this country who wants to 
work. (Cries of 'That's right,' and cheers.) It is a policy of honesty, of patri- 
otism and intense Americanism, that our grand old party steadfastly maintains. 
I am glad to meet you and to greet you. I am glad to know that this year, as 
in the past, the Republicans of your counties are enrolled in the ranks, and tliat 
sound money Democrats from every walk and calling in life are with you. AVe 
welcome them as valuable allies in this great contest, for good money and the 
supremacy of law. I am pleased that you have paid me this call and I bid you 
& hearty welcome, but, as another delegation is waiting to see me, I must now 
bid you all good afternoon." (Great cheering.) 

CLEVELAND WELL REPRESENTED. 

When the city of Cleveland sent a delegation to greet Major McKixley it 
usually sent a large and enthusiastic one. This proved to be the case, Satur- 
day, October 2-ith, for the Forest City's British Isles American McKinley Club 
was exceeded in numbers by only one other delegation, that of St. Louis. In 

494 



point of enthusiasm, both were on equal footing. The British Isles Club was 
accompanied by employes to the number of about 300 from the Standard Tool 
Company and a like number of workingmen from the Standard Machine Company 
of the Forest City. In the British Isles delegation were represented natural- 
ized AVelsiimen, Irishmen, Englishmen, Manxmen and Scotchmen^ and each 
had their spokesman. The speakers for the delegation were Colonel William 
MoNAHAN, for the Irish contingent; David W. John, for the Welshmen; Cap- 
tain George Warner, for the Englishmen ; William E.. Creer, for the Manx- 
men ; William Downey, for the Scotch ; Will H. Pirrong, for the Standard 
Tool Company, and W. C. Talmage for the Standard Machine Company. 



Hajor McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens: I give hearty welcome to my fellow countrymen, 
descendants of the people of the British Isles, but now free and independent Amer- 
ican citizens. (Great applause and cries of 'You are right.') Whether we are 
Englishmen, Irishmen, Manxmen, AVelshmen or Scotchmen, by birth, we are 
now all for the great American Union and the glorious old Stars and Stripes 
that floats above us. (Tremendous applause.) Yielding none of the love we 
have for the mother country, we love this free Government, with its glorious 
institutions, which has become not only the country of our adoption, but the 
Nation of our deepest love. (Cries of 'That's right,' and applause.) I greet 
you all today You are the descendants of men whose blood has been shed 
upon every battlefield of this glorious Republic ; men whose blood was shed in 
the first great contest for independence, a hundred and twenty and more years 
ago, and in every crisis of American history many men from the British Isles 
or their descendants, stood for the indissolubility of the Union and the perpe- 
tuity of American liberty and free institutions. (Cries of 'Hear,' 'Hear,' and 
great cheering.) We follow the flag our fathers established, the same they 
bore, the same our grandsires lifted up in many a battle's tempest. What 
God hath woven in his loom let no man rend in twain. (Applause.) I am glad 
to hear, here at my home, that you are deeply interested in the rightful settlement 
of the great questions that confront us this year. I am glad to welcome in the 
same body the employes of the Standard Tool Company and the Standard Sew- 
ing Machine Company, both famous institutions in the city of Cleveland. 
(Cheers.) You are here, no matter from whence your ancestors came, no mat- 
ter in what occupation you labor, moved by the common impulse 
of love of country. (Cries of 'Hear,' 'Hear,' and 'That's right.') You 
are here because you will never consent to have our National honor trailed in 
the dust and this Nation set down as favoring repudiation. (Cries of 'Never,' 
'Never.') The Standard Sewing Machine Company and the Standard Tool Com- 
pany believe i^ sound machines and sound tools. (Cries of 'That's what,' and 
'You bet we do,' amid great laughter and applause.) And they believe also in 
sound money. (Renewed cheering.) They want a sound government, sound 
laws and (a voice, 'William McKinley for President,' followed by tremendous 
applause and laughter) — and they propose to use their good sound sense this year 
in the deposit of their ballots one week from next' Tuesday. (Continuous 
cheering and cries of 'You bet,' and 'We'll vote right.') What are you aU in- 
terested in? First in the prosperity of this country, in its honor and 
its future glory. The past is secure. Our fathers did their whole duty 
and they have transmitted to us the best fabric of government known 

495 



among men. Shall we preserve it unimpaired to the latest generation? (Tre- 
mendous shouts of 'Yes,' 'Yes,' followed by applause.) I know you can be 
counted upon to do it. (Cheers and cries of 'Sure,' 'Sure,' and 'liight you are.') 
This is no personal contest ; this is no party contest. It rises above party and 
personality, and is placed upon the plane of patriotism ; for patriotism knows 
neither party nor nationality. 'Cries of 'That's right,' and loud cheering.) It 
is the noblest sentiment of the human soul, for it is love of home, wife, mother 
and children. (Loud and continued applause.) With those blessed flags in 
your hands, and all that they represent in your hearts, no danger can ever come- 
to this great Kepublic. (Continued applause.) God bless and keep you, and 
guide you into the paths that will give to you, to your families, and to poster- 
ity, the highest destiny attainable under our free institutions. (Renewed 
cheering.) Another delegation is w^aiting, for this year there is no end to the 
army that carries the old flag. (Tremendous applause.) They talk about, 
coercion— the coercion of employe by employer. They mistake the spirit of the 
campaign. It is not coercion, but it is cohesion (great laughter and continued 
cheering) — cohesion between employer and employe, made stronger by a com- 
mon intesest and a common experience. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and 'Right 
you are.') I thank you for this call and your generous greetings, and wish you 
all good night." (Three cheers.) 

MISSOURI'S BIG DELEGATION. '.Jy^;^^ 

Missouri sent the last delegation of the day and gloriously wound up a 
eplendid series of receptions to the visiting thousands. The Missourians were not 
to be outdone at any point, and all shouts raised in opposition to their's were 
drowned by the cheers and huzzas of these railroaders from the west. They 
came in three sections, the third being delayed several hours, not reaching 
Canton until nearly dark. The Tabernacle was used as a temporary rendezvous 
while awaiting the last sections. The delegation, which numbered about 3,500 
people, was composed of members of the Raikoad Men's Sound Money Club, of 
Missouri, and were from St. Louis, East St. Louis, De Soto, Jefferson City, 
Sedalia and Moberly. Headed by Canton Troop, the Citizens' Reception Com- 
mittee, the Grand Army Band, Canton's Railroad Men's Sound Money Club 
and the Sixteenth Ward Drum Corps, of St. Louis, the delegation marched to 
the "Republican Shrine." The spokesman for the party was Mr. J. S. Tustik, 
of St. Louis, who said: 

"Major McKinley: I have the pleasure of introducing to you these citizens 
from St, Louis and other points in our great State. They have traveled eight 
hundred, nine hundred and, some of them, twelve hundred miles to testify their 
unswerving allegiance to National honor and American institutions. Railroad 
men look with delight on that condition of things called r -xl times. (Appjause.) 
They 'like to see'"the wheels go 'round,' rushing trains, heavily loaded cars, and 
all the workshops running. We can't have this condition now because of chaos 
and industrial confusion. We believe the only way to get good times is^to foliow 
out the sentiments of the St. Louis platform and elect William McKinley, of 
Ohio, President of the United States. (Here tremendous cheers and waving of 
flags, hats, etc., foUowed the mention of Major McKinley's name.) A storm of 
protest has been gathering in the political sky of Missouri, but her loyal citizens 
will strike the clouds with the lightning of their ballots and the bright sun of 
victory will burst through and shine upon your illustrious name. About 
ninety per cent, of the railroad men will vote for you." (Great cheering.) 

496 j 



Major McKinley's Response. 

f 

"My Fellow Citizens : Some of you were a little late in getting here , but you 
are here just the same (laughter and great applause) and I bid Missourians and 
lUinoisans (a voice 'And Kansans') and Kansans welcome to Ohio. This 
visit on the part of three thousand or more of my fellow citizens from Missouri 
and Illinois and, as my friend on the left suggests, Kansas, traveling a thousand 
miles to express their allegiance to Eepublican principles, deeply stirs my 
heart. You are a great people in the West and Southwest. "When I was in Mis- 
souri in 1894, the motto I saw everywhere paraded was 'Stand up for Missouri.' 
(Tremendous applause and waving of flags.) The motto this year, regardless of 
section, or party, is 'Stand up for (a voice 'McKinley, every time') the United 
States.' (Applause.) When we from our respective States stand up for the 
re-created Union, we are standing for the highest and best interests of our 
respective Commonwealths, and the highest welfai-e of aU their people. In 1894, 
Missouri gave her voice for sound money and a protective tariff. (Cheers and cries 
of 'She'll do it again.') She elected ten Republican Congressmen out of iifteen 
to the National House of Representatives. . What will Missouri do this year? 
(Vociferous shouts of 'Elect MoKinley,' followed by continuous cheering and 
the waving of flags and hats and the tooting of horns) in this most important 
crisis of our Nation's history? What we must have in a country like ours, if 
we would enforce public policies, is not only the Chief Executive of the Gov- 
ernment, but we must have the National House and Senate. (Cries of 'We'll 
get them,' and great applause.) We can not make or unmake any law by ex- 
ecutive authority merely, or by legislative authority merely, but it must be 
done by the concurrence of both legislative and executive branches of the 
Government. Missouri has an opportunity this year to elect a Legislature 
that will send a sound-money-hundred-cent-dollar Senator to the Senate of the 
United States. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and 'Bully for you, Major,' followed by 
tremendous cheering.) This will be a splendid contribution to make to the 
Senate, in favor not only of a sound dollar and the maintenance of our National 
honor, but to give us once more a true and genuine American policy that will 
promote American development and uphold American labor. (Vociferous 
cheers and waving of flags. ) Railroad men of Missouri and Illinois, no matter 
to what party you have belonged in the past, this is no year for the voice of the 
partisan. The voice of the partisan is hushed in the chorus of patriotism that 
sounds from one end of our country to the other. It Is a voice appealing for 
country, for the country's honor, for the country's prosperity, and nobody 
knows so well as the railroad men of the United States when this country is 
prosperous and when it is depressed. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and 'Youare right, 
Major.') The sparks, which your eloquent spokesman referred to, and which 
he loved to see, and we all love to see, always shine the brightest when every 
industry in the United States is most actively at work. (Cries of 'That right,' 
and cheers.) You can not have trafiic on your great railroad systems if there is 
not confidence in the business world. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and 'That's 
right.') You can not get anybody to invest his money in making products if he 
has not confidence that he can sell those products at a profit. (Cries of 'That's 
correct,' and 'You're right.') If he can not be induced to manufacture 
then there is little for you to haul. (Renewed cheers.) When there are no 
products for you to haul, this or that train is abandoned, the crews are laid off 
and their wages stopped. (Cries of 'We know that,' and 'True,' 'True,' and 
great cheering.) When trains are stopped employes are dropped. (Laughter 

497 



and applause.) Am I not right? (Vociferous shouts of 'You are,' 'You are.') 
What we want is a restoration of public and private confidence. (Cries of 'Hear,' 
^Hear,' and 'Good,' 'Good.') And you can never get that by defiantly declaring 
that this is a Nation of repudiators and that we propose co pay our one hundred 
cent debts with fifty-two cent dollars. (Tremendous applause and cries of 
'Hurrah for MoKinley.') I said to an assemblage of railroad men, the other 
day, that what they wanted was to get a good road and when they had that 
they wanted to be paid in good dollars. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'That's 
correct.') Missouri has a most brilliant future before her. I do not know a 
State in the American Union with greater possibilities in material wealth than 
your glorious State possesses. You have within the bosom of Missouri every- 
thing that God above has implanted anywhere ; you have all of nature's richest 
treasures. (Applause.) What you want is to unfold and develop them, and the 
only way you can do that is by the magic touch of confidence, which will 
develop the skill, the genius and the industry, and invite the participation of 
the capital of the country. My fellow citizens, Missouri is the third State in 
the Union in the value of her agi-icultural products. (Tremendous applause.) 
Missouri farmers want a good home market^ (cries of 'They do that') and a 
:good foreign market, and when Missouri has a good home market you have all 
you can do to transport her products to the fields of consumption in the East or 
-across the sea. When Missouri had, with the other States of the Union, a 
reciprocity that opened up the foreign market to the agi-icultural products of 
the United States, you were busy transporting those products to the seaboard 
<great applause) and in returning you brought back the manufactured products 
of the East and so you had freight both ways, and you had fare both ways. 
< Tremendous applause and laughter.) I thank you for coming to my home. I 
send by you my message to Missouri. This is not a campaign of sectionalism. 
(Cries of *No,' 'No,' 'You are right.') But a campaign of patriotism. I say to 
Missouri, your interests are our common interests, no longer is there a North or 
a South, an East or a West, but one glorious Union forever." (Tremendous chiera 
and applause.) 

QREETINQS FROM MANY STATES. 

Major McKiNLET began his first speech in the last week of the campaign, at 
about eleven o'clock, Monday morning, October 26th, to an Indiana delegation. 
While the address was in progress another crowd, coming from Ohio, waited 
at the arch until the lawn was vacated. In turn some New .Jersey people vvai",ed 
at the same place till the Ohioans got out of the way. New Jersey was followed 
by delegations from Pennsylvania, from Massachusetts and a second company 
from Indiana. The first arrival was the several Railway Men's Sound ^Nloney 
Clubs, of Seymour, Washington and North Vernon, Indiana, composed princi- 
pally of employes of the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern system, the party 
numbering about 350. Their special train had been on the way since three 
o'clock the previous afternoon, but the long journey of over four hundred miles 
had in no wise dulled the enthusiasm of the visitors. The introductory address 
was made by O. H. Moktooiieet, of Seymour, Indiana. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : The call which you men of Indiana have seen fit to 
make upon me, this morning, gives me sincere pleasure and is greatly appreciat- 
ed. I am glad that the railroad employes of the Baltimore and Ohio South- 

493 



western are deeply interested in the pending campaign. And why are they 
interested? Because in the settlement of the questions that now divide us, 
and upon which, one week from tomorrow, you will express your several judg- 
ments, is involved public safety, public honer, public confidence and the 
stability of the credit and currency of the Government of the United Suites. 
There are some people who seem to think that the best way to get on in this 
world is to be against each other and everybody else (laughter and applause) 
and that there is a natural antagonism between those who employ labor and 
those who are employed. They are disturbed whenever they discover that the 
employer of labor and labor itself are on good terms, and whenever that occurs 
they commence crying coercion. It is not coercion ; it is co-operation, the one 
working with the other for the public good, and for their advantage severally. 
(Applause. ) "We do not want antagonism between capital and labor in this 
country ; they ought to be close together all the time. The one can not get on 
without the other, and instead of their being enemies they should always be 
friends. Instead of discouraging sympathy between them, which we all ought 
always to advance, there are those who would create antipathy between them ; 
for example, between railroad managers and those who are employed by the 
railroads. Now, I do not believe in any such doctrine, myself. I believe in the 
common brotherhood of man. (Great applause and cries of 'You are right,' 
and 'That's correct.') I believe that labor gets on best when capital gets on 
best, and that capital gets on best when labor is paid the most. (Tremendous 
cheering and cries of 'That's the stuff,' and 'You are right.') Instead of there 
being a natural antagonism, there is a natural alliance between them, and the 
people who are forever seeking to create antagonisms between those who em- 
ploy labor and those who are employed, are the people who never give any 
employment to labor at all. (Great applause and cries of 'That's good,' 
and 'You are right.') Am I not right? (Great shouts of 'You are,' 'You 
are.') Now, what we want in this country— and I am now addressing the 
Sound Money Club of the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Kailroad 
alone — is first, confidence, confidence in each other, confidence in the 
credit of the country, confidence in the future, confidence in our money, 
confidence that if we invest our money today we will get something out of it 
at the end of the year. If we haven't any confidence of that kind, no one will 
feel like investing money, and if money is not invested there is no employment 
for labor, (Cries of 'Eight you are,' and 'Good,' 'Good.') Then, too, as your 
spokesman has well said, we want a tariff that will raise enough money to keep 
this Government out of debt. (Applause.) AVe do not want any more debts 
and deficiencies either in the Treasury or among the people. We must pay as 
we go. (Cries of 'That's the stuff,' and 'That's right.') And we want a tariff 
t^at will enable us to pay all our bills, and we want that tariff so adjusted as to 
encourage American protection and upb 'd and sustain the dignity and inde- 
pendence of American labor. (Cheering. ) The labor of this country was never 
so independent or prosperous as during the thirty-three years when we were 
under a protective policy and on a sound monetary basis. (Renewed cheers and 
cries of 'You are right.' ) Labor never had so many comforts and the homes of our 
laboring men never had so much cheer, hope and contentment as during those 
thirty-three years. Four years ago we abandoned that policy. A good many men 
who voted to abandon it would have been glad to have voted at any time within 
the last three years to restore it, and they are all awaiting now a chance to vote 
it back. (Applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good-,' and 'You are right we ar€.') 
They believe in a policy that not only provides revenues for the Government. 

499 



but gives a chance to the workingman to earn money for himself and family. 
(Renewed applause.) It is the business of the American people to look after 
their own interests, their own shops, their own factories, their own railroads. 
They used to tell the railroad men that a protective tariff did not helf* them. 
Well, it may not help them directly, but it helps them just as effectively as it 
benefits those who work in mines, or in the factories — and why? Because with- 
out a protective tariff the shops, the factories and the mines will close, and 
when they are closed, the railroads have nothing to do ; and when the railroad3 
have nothing to do, their men have nothing to do. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 
great applause.) As I said last Saturday, in an address to a large railroad del- 
egation, when the trains are taken off, the employes are put off the payroll, and 
when trains are stopped the men are dropped. (Renewed cheers.) Now, what 
we want to do, not as partisans but as patriots, is to stand for that policy 
that is best for ourselves, our homes, our wives and children, as well as our 
State and country ; and then we want to teach a reverence for public law and 
to stand firmly for tranquility as against violence. We want to stand by the 
great, incorruptible judiciary of the country, which is our bulwark of safety 
in every hour of trouble and peril. We do not want any dishonest dollars. I 
like the name of your club — 'Sound Money.' (Applause.) We do not want 
anything unsound in this Government. We want a dollar that is as good as 
gold, as your spokesman has said, and just as good in the hands of the poor as 
in the hands of the rich. The first mission that a poor, depreciated, debased 
dollar performs, is to find its way into the hands of some poor man who can't 
afford to lose it. (Great applause.) This has been the errand of poor dollars 
ever since t-he Government began. The poorest dollars always eventually land 
in the pockets of the poorest people, for when the break or crash comes, the 
poor man loses it. (Great applause ) The man of capital keeps his finger 
upon the financial pulse ; he knows when money is going down, and when it is 
going down, he parts with it. Now, my fellow citizens, I thank you for this 
call. I am glad the railroad people of the country are in favor of retaining 
public honor and financial honesty and to know that railroad oflBcials and 
railroad employes are no longer, anywhere, in antagonism but in hearty co-ope- 
ration for the good of their roads and the good of the country. I will be glad 
to meet you all personally." (Three enthusiastic cheers, and a song by the 
Glee Club.) 

OHIO RAILWAY EHPLOYES' DELEGATION. 

The employes of the Cleveland, Lorain and Wheeling Railroad were next to 
present themselves. They wei-e about 800 in number, among whom were many 
ladies. This delegation was a particularly enthusiastic one and made it mani- 
fest by shouts and hurrahs. In the party were representatives of all branches 
of railroad service from the general officer down to the section man, including 
also a number of the dock hands at Lorain. Ohio. They were headed by a band. 
The spokesman was L. H. Eddy, a locomotive engineer. 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen : You have done me great 
honor, and the cause which I represent, greater honor, in assembling in such 
large-numbers at my house to give assurances of your zeal in the cause of our 
country. (Applause.) You are here because one week from tomorrow you 
intend to vote the ballot which you believe better represents your interests and 

500 



the interests of the country than any other. The ballot is a shield against in- 
justice and wrong, and is given the citizen to correct the mistakes of any Gov- 
ernmental policy that may have been made. The power is his to inaugliirate 
new and better policies for the good of the whole country, and I believe that 
the men who stand before me, who are entrusted with the care of life and 
property, such as no other class of workingmen are entrusted with, can be safe- 
ly relied upon to guard their own ballots for their country's good and for the 
benefit of their families and homes. (Loud cheers and cries of 'You are right.') 
I believe that they can be trusted to do this without counsel or advice from 
anybody. Whatever you may wear on the outside of your coats, I bid you vote 
in accordance with what is on the inside. (Loud cheers and cries of 'We will.') 
I bid you vote on November third just as your consciences dictate when you 
are within the sacred precincts of your homes. I believe the Kepublican Party 
this year stands for what is best in a government for the people. I believe that 
it represents in. a greater degree than any other ever did before, the 
honor and glory of the Nation and the integrity and intelligence of 
American labor. (Cheers.) The men who are accustomed to giving heed 
to danger signals, as all railroad men are, intend to heed the signals of danger 
pointed out not by Kepublicans alone but by Democrats themselves ; not by 
partisans but by patriots. (Applause.) I believe they can be trusted to 
look out for themselves. I make no personal appeal to you. Men are nothing 
in a great contest like this, but principles and policies, are everything. What 
we want in the United States is prosperity and we can not get it if we 
announce to the world that we propose to repudiate .one half of the debts, 
private and public, of the country. (Loud cheers and cries of 'You are right.') 
No railroad company can borrow money to make improvements if it is known 
that the money will be repaid in fifty-two cent dollars, and no workingman 
wants to be paid in dollars worth only fifty-two cents. One hundred cent dol- 
lars are small enough ; those who have them wish that there were a greater 
number of cents in each dollar than one hundred. (Loud laughter and ap- 
plause.) The great test of a National policy is the labor of the country. We 
have been for thirty-three years — with the exception of the last three— under a 
protective policy, and under good, safe, sound money, and while the products of 
the workshop and factory were cheapened, labor itself was not cheapened. Down 
to J 892, under protection and sound money, while everything else lessened in 
price, labor more than held its own. I thank you for this call, and will not 
talk longer, as there is another delegation waiting, which I am sure you will be 
glad +.0 give way to, a delegation from the State which has furnished us that 
splendid and patriotic candidate for Vice-President, Gabeet A. Hobart." 
(Loud cheers.) 

A NEW JERSEY DELEGATION. 

Major McKiNXEY had hardly finished his address to the Ohio railroad men, 
when the delegation, headed by the famous Newark Drum Corps, marched up 
the street. The chief feature of the delegation was the Frelinghuysen Escort 
Club, of Newark, which was organized in 1868. This club, numbering 120 men, 
was elaborately uniformed and performed many diflBcult manoeuvers. The 
Grand Army Band escorted the un-uniformed members of the delegation. As 
the parade approached the McKinley residence, the Ohio delegation viewed it 
from the lawns along Market street. Major MoKinxey mounted a small table in 
lieu of the reviewing stand which had not been again erected, and bowed in 

501 



response to the repeated and continued cheers which arose as the marchers 
passed. The delegation then filled the yard and John B. Gibson, of Newark, 
made the presentation speech. He said: 

" Major MoKinley : It is my pleasant privilege to present to you this sub- 
stantial delegation of citizens of Newark, New Jersey — a city which has been 
styled the 'Birmingham of America,' because of its many and diversified indus- 
tries. No city of this continent, contained within the limits of one Congressional 
district, equals the chief city of New Jersey in these respects. (Applause.) 
With us we have as an escort the Frelinghuysen Lancers, the oldest and finest 
uniformed political organization in the State. They bear the honored name of 
Newark's great statesmen, who more than a half a century ago, stood with 
Hbnry Clay in a momentous battle for protection. You will probably recall 
that they formed your escort when you visited Newark, four years ago, and en- 
tertained you after your speech at a great mass meeting of our people. (Ap- 
plause.) Four years ago, under the operations of the great industrial measure 
which bore youi- name, our people were prosperous and happy. Forty-eight 
thousand of our residents were pursuing profitable employment in two hundred 
and fifty factories. Their wages amounted to $24,000,000 annually, and the cir- 
culation of this vast sum quickened every channel of business and trade. Under 
these beneficent conditions great numbers of our workingmen acquired homes ; 
the deposits in our savings banks aggi-egated $11,000,000, and investments in 
building and loan associations were proportionately great. But 'a change came 
o'er the spirit of our dream' — the change wrought by the tariff for deficiency 
only. Since then our artisans have suffered from lack of employment and loss 
of wages, and thousands, at times, have been compelled to depend upon public 
and private charity for subsistence. Capital has been withdra'«Ti from indus- 
trial channels, our merchants have suffered from contraction of trade, and the 
capacity of the wage earner, having been lessened in the many industrial cities 
and towns of the State, the home market of the New Jersey farmer has been 
lessened to that extent. With this great object lesson before us, it was not 
strange, when the Eepublican Party was considering who should be its candi- 
date for the Presidential ofiice, that Jerseymen of all conditions favored the 
nomination of the great exemplar of protection. (Applause.) And now that 
it is proposed to add depreciated money to depreciat-ed opportunity for labor 
and trade, it is not strange that Jerseymen of all political convictions are con- 
centrating in support of the great leader who advocates an honest dollar in 
payment for honest toil and honest products. (Applause.) With these facts in 
view we have journeyed nearly a thousand miles to bring you a message of 
cheer from the citizens of our great industrial city, and to give you the assur- 
ance, if further assurance is needed, that the State of Garret A. Hobart (ap- 
plause) will give a majority of 50,000 for the restoration of our industries, for 
the better employment of our citizens, and for the continuance of a financial 
policy as sound as the Government itself." (Great applause.) 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens OF New Jersey: I bid you warm and sincere wel- 
come to my State, my city and home. I think we all have a growing affection 
for the original thirteen States that laid the foundation of our splendid political 
fabric. For more than a hundred and twenty years that fabric has stood the 
shock of battle from without and from within, and is stronger and more patri- 
otic today than it has ever been, as will be seen by its vote a week from 

502 



tomorrow. (Loud cheers.) New Jersey has the distinction of being one of 
those glorious thirteen original States. She not only has the distinction of 
membership in that original family, but she is full of historic memories and 
sacred historic events leading up to our National independence. I am glad to 
meet you, members of this old and historic company, twenty-eight years old, 
and bearing the honoi-ed name of Frelixghuysex, one of the most illustrious, 
not only in the annals of your own State, but in the annals of the Nation. 
(Applause.) A name that is synonymous with protection to our industries, 
and to National honor, with honest finance, good currency and public 
and private morality. (Renewed applause.) I am glad to welcome you, 
my fellow citizens, fi'om the State and home of my distinguished associate 
on the National ticket, that splendid, typical, representative American, 
that honest citizen, that incorruptible statesman, Garret A. Hobart. (Loud 
and prolonged cheers.) No ordinary event could have brought you a thousand 
miles to the city of Canton ; no ordinary political contest could have assembled 
on this lawn thousands and tens of thousands of men and women from every 
quarter of this country. It is only because in the public mind there exists 
a belief that we are confronted with a great public peril and because we mean 
by our votes to shun and avoid it. This is the meaning of it all. We have 
experienced only calamity by following false teachers. AVe do not propose to 
experience another and even greater calamity by following the same teachers. 
(Loud cheers.) We have already withstood the experience of partial free trade, 
a policy, the result of which your eloquent spokesman has so fitly described ; a 
policy that has brought idleness to our workingmen and extinguished the fires 
in many furnaces. This has been your experience in the past three and a half 
years. It is proposed now to add to that, as though we had not suffered 
enough, that fatal heresy that, in some way or another, people can get rich by 
debasing our currency. They have reduced wages, reduced employment and 
now they want to reduce the value of the money in which they are paid. So 
that we ai'e suffering in both directions. What we want in the United States 
is a stable tariff law that will raise enough money to pay all the current expenses 
of the Government, that will obviate the necessity of borrowing and lay up a 
surplus to wipe out the existing debt. (Cheers.) In 1835, the Government of 
the United States paid off its entire debt. It was $85,000,000 in 1804 and the 
people believed it never could be paid off. It was reduced to $45,000,000 after 
1812, and by pursuing a protective policy for thirty-five years every dollar was 
paid. By pursuing the same policy from 1861 to 1893, we paid off more than 
two-thirds of our great war debt, reaching more than two billions of dollars, and, 
if our prosperity had not been interrupted and the Republican policy had not 
been abandoned, we would have paid it all off by today. (Loud cheers.) 
Now, what we want to do is to get back to that good, patriotic, protective 
policy that stands for the American people and American development against 
all the world besides. (Loud cheers.) Then we want to pursue a correct 
financial system and have every dollar in this country as sound as the Govern- 
ment itself and as unquestioned in its integrity as the flag that waves above 
us. We want public honor kept inviolate. We want to teach and practice 
reverence for public law, respect for our incorruptible judiciary, love for our 
free institutions, veneration for our flag and zeal for public and private honor. 
Let that be the shield of exalted American citizenship. (Loud cheers.) 
I am glad to meet ycu. I remeinber years ago to have been in your 
State and city. Twenty years ago I spoke in the city of Trenton. I 
was then a young man but we were battling then, as now, for honest 

503 



money— for an honest dollar and a protective tariff. Then later on, I 
spoke in the chief city of New Jersey, your home city, the city of 
Newark. That was four years ago. I was the guest of this brilliant conii)any 
the Frelinghuysen Lancers. You were my escort while I was in your city, and 
you will remember that I appealed to you to stand for a protective system, and 
I told you that the abandonment of it meant business revolution and business 
paralysis. But we had to try it, and we have tried it. (Loud laughter and 
cheers.) Now what have you got by it? (Loud cries of 'Nothing.') And how- 
do you like it? (Cries of 'Not a bit.') Now, this year Democrats and Repub- 
licans are united together, not as partisans but as patriots, for the voice of 
partisanship is hushed in the grand chorus of patriotism that vibrates from one 
end of the country to the other. Democrats and Republicans alike stand for 
National honor, for the supremacy of law and order, and for the prosperity and 
glory of the great American Republic. (Loud cheers.) I thank you and bid 
you good morning." (Great cheering.) 

EnPL0YE5 OP THE ERIE RAILROAD. 

The largest delegation of the day was made up of employes of the Erie 
railroad, hailing from four States — Pennsylvania, Ohio. Indiana and Illinois. 
The party numbered about 3,500 people, coming on three special trains over the 
Cleveland, Canton and Southern railroad. The visitors were introduced by 
locomotive engineer George Menish, of North Judson, Indiana. He said 
that they were a representative body of wage earners — a body of men who had 
not been coerced into voting the Republican ticket, but who came "A their own 
volition to assure Major MoKinley that they were his friends 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

'' Mr. Menish and My Fellow Citizens : I welcome you with the sincerest 
cordiality to my city and home It is a special honor to the great cause 
which I have been designated to represent, to recieve this large body of em- 
ployes of the Erie railway system, extending from New York to Chicago. (Ap- 
plause.) I am glad to note among your number your wives and families. The 
women of this country are quite as much interested m the rightful settlement 
of political questions as the men. They are quite as much interested in good 
times, good laws, good morals, and unsullied patriotism, as the men are, and it 
has been a pleasure to me to note that in all the months of this exciting and in- 
teresting campaign, the women of the United States have manifested a deep 
and profound concern. (Applause ) You are here today, thousands in number, 
from a half dozen States of the Union, because one week from tomorrow you 
are to perform the supreme and most sacred duty of American citizenship. (A 
voice, 'And we will elect McE'inley, too,' followed by applause and laughter.) 
There is one glory of which we can boast that no other nation can, and that ia 
that ours is a Government of the people, and for all the people, and not a part o* 
the people. (Great cheering and cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley.') The vote of 
one man, no matter what his occupation, no matter v/hat his surroundings, 
whetlier humble or whether exalted, counts just as much on that supreme day 
as the vote of any other man. (Continued applause.) It is our proud boast, 
too, that every man eonti-ols his own vote. It is his priceless privilege which 
no other man or combination has a right to assail or question. (Cries of 'Hear,' 
'Hear,' and 'That's right,' and applause.) I want the people of this country 
.this year, as in all the years of the past, each for himself and his family, to cast 

504 



his ballot so as to subserve his and their highest and best interests. (Applause 
and cries of 'That's what we'lldo,' and 'We'll vote for you, Major.') Why, there 
is almost a panic among some people of this country because employes and em- 
ployers are marching under the same flag (applause) as though there was some- 
thing un-American about a fraternity between the men who employ 
labor and the laborers they employ. Why, there is no union, anywhere, 
that should be stronger than the union between labor and capital. 
(Continuous cheering and cries of 'That's right,' and 'Good,' 'Good.') 
The one can not get on without the other, and labor, thank God, is 
at the foundation of all the wealth and prosperity beneath our flag. 
(Great applause.) Capital will not run a railroad without profit any more 
than a conductor will run his train without pay. Capital will no more work 
at a loss than an engineer will run an engine without compensation. 
(Great applause.) What we want in this country is a restoration of that confi- 
dence that will give profit to capital and have it make liberal investments an4 
employ labor at liberal American wages. (Great applause and cries of 'Hurrah 
for McKiNLET.') Whatever policy will do that should be the policy of the 
American people for all time to come. (Cries of 'You are right.') Will a policy 
do that that encourages the foreign workshop against the home workshop ? 
(Cries of ' No, sir.' ) Will a policy do that that has American goods manufactured in 
England rather than in the United States ? (Loud shouts of 'No,' 'No,' 'Never.') 
No, I answer, forever no. There is just one thing that will do it, and that is to 
piMjtect every industry in this country from ruinous competition from abroad 
end give our producers this splendid home market and our wage earners this 
magnificent wage center. Then we want to open up, by reciprocal provisions, a 
foreign market for our surplus agricultural anC manufactured products, and 
when we have done that, we have put every man to work in this country ; and 
when every workingman is busy, every home and family in the land 
is happy. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'Good,' 'Good,' and tremendous ap- 
plause.) When every factory and man is at work in this country the railroads 
have plenty to do, but when they are idle and silent the railroads have little to 
do. The men standing around and about me know better than I can tell them, 
how much they have suffered from a policy that has stricken down enterprise 
and industry and transmitted our work beyond the seas to be done beneath 
other flags. (Continuous cheering.) You know how much you suffer and you 
know that whenever a train is taken off your road, one less engineer and fewer 
brakemen and switchmen, are required. In a word, every time a railroad com- 
pany lays off a train, it lays off a crew, and what does that mean ? It means 
idleness. What does idleness mean ? It means poverty and suffering. (Ap- 
plause and cries of 'That's right.') My fellow citizens, we want to vote, if we 
believe in protection, we want to vote to restore industry. We want further to 
have it understood by all mankind that this is not a Nation of repudiators (loud 
and continued applause) that we believe in paying our debts in good, sound, 
honest dollars— not only our public debts but our private ones, also; not only 
paying one body of our people in good money, but all in the same kind of money, 
unquestioned and undepreciating forever. (Renewed cheering.) This is the 
kind of money we have today— gold, silver and paper, all alike equal, and all 
worth one hundred cents to the dollar everywhere ; and that's what we propose 
to continue. (Cries of 'That's what we'll do,' and 'That's no lie,' followed by 
great applause.) There is no man who thinks for a moment that will not 
reject the suggestion that you can enrich anybody by debasing the dollar, 
(laughter and applause) or that you can make anybody under the sun better off 

505 



by coining a piece of metal that is worth only fifty-two cents everywhere else in 
the world, and then try to fool each other by calling it a dollar. (Laughter and 
renewed cheers.) If there is anything in this world that ought to be unques- 
tioned and above suspicion, it is the money of the country. We want no false 
weights ; we want no false balances ; we want no false measures of value to cheat 
the unwary. And let me tell you that those who suffer most from a poor cur- 
rency are always and inevitably men who toil. (Cries of 'That's the stuff,' and 
'Eully for you. Major,' and great cheering.) There is not a man in this audience 
who was drawing wages prior to 1860 that does not remember that he was 
always paid in the poorest dollar that would pass current. (Cries of 'True,' 
'True,' 'That's right,' and 'Your are correct.') When he got it at night, it 
may have been good, but before morning came the bank was broke and the 
money lost. (Cries of 'That's true, 'That's right,' and 'I know that.') We have 
had no such experience in the last thirty years, for every dollar in this country 
is good — as good as the Government and as untarnished as our Hag ; every dollar 
representing one hundred cents, and good not only among our own people, but 
wherever trade goes, in every mart and market place of the world. (A voice, 
'Who inade it ?') It was made by the Republican Party. (Laughter, and tre- 
mendous cheering lasting several moments.) But let me say while it was made 
by the Republican Party, the administration of Mr. Cleveland has maintained 
it all good, every dollar as good as gold. (Great applause.) Then, my fellow 
citizens, another thing we want in this country. We want public peace and 
tranquility. (Cries of 'That's right.' and 'That's the stuff.') We want to teach 
respect for law. (Cries of 'That's it,' and 'Good,' 'Good.') And reverence for our 
free institutions, the grandest and the best beneath the sun. (Renevred cheers.) I 
tell you, I sometimes fear that we don't know how priceless these free institutions 
are. ^ (Cries of 'We don't,' and 'That's true,') I sometimes think we don't ap- 
preciate what they're worth. Think of a Government of seventy millions of 
people, all of them equal, equal in responsibility, opportunity and possibility ! 
But some of you may say, 'I have not had as good luck as I ought to have had ; 
I have been unfortunate; I haven't risen as I hoped I might.' Possibly that's 
true ; the world is full of disappointments ; but because you haven't succeeded 
as well as you would like to have done, you want your boys and girls who 
come after you to succeed, and I therefore bid you maintain unimpaired these 
splendid institutions. (Cries of 'We will,' and tremendous applause.) And, 
now, my fellow citizens, having said this, and thanking you for the long journey 
you have made to come here to testify your devotion to Republican principles, 
and knowing as I do that no class of people like a straight track better than the 
railroad people (long and vociferous cheering) I am certain you will, one week 
from tomorrow, take the straight track to public honor and National prosperi- 
ty." (Cries of "That's what we'll do," and great applause.) 

NEW ENGLAND RAILROAD MEN. 

Twenty-three members of the Railway Men's Sound Money League, of New 
England, representing 30,000 railroad men, reached Canton, Monday afternoon, 
October 26th, in the Wagner car "Venus," which was attached to the regular 
Cleveland, Canton and Southern train, having left Boston on the morning pre- 
vious. The visitors were met at the depot with carriages, and Major McKinley 
received tliem in the library, where they were introduced by Alexander Rob- 
ertson as the representatives of every branch of railroad life, sent here by their 
fellow workingmen with greetings and assurances of support for the Republican 

Party. 

506 



riajor ilcKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Robertson and My Fellow Citizens op New England: lam de- 
lighted to have you pay me this visit. I appreciate that, vrhile you are few in 
numbers, you represent quite as large a constituency as any one of the larger dele- 
gations that has honored me with a visit. It is especially gi-atifying to know 
that, in a measure, this is a great non-partisan campaign, as the title of your or- 
ganization indicates. This is a year when the fires of patriotism are burning in 
our hearts and the flowers of patriotism are blooming over the garden walls of 
politics. I am glad, indeed, to meet you aU and I value, more than I can tell 
you, your good wishes and assurances of support. We have much at stake this 
year in the soundness of our currency and the integrity of our Nation, and I 
feel highly complimented in the support and assistance of the railroad men of 
the United States. I greet the representatives of New England and give them 
sincere welcome." (Three cheers were then given by the visitors.) 

THREE STATES REPRESENTED. 

Three States were represented in the first crowd on the McKinley lawn, 
Tuesday, October 27th. The party was composed of the Ladies' Sound Money 
Club, of Martin's Ferry, Ohio, in which about sixty women wearing large rib- 
bon badges inscribed "McKinley and Sound Money," marched like veterans. 
They were at the head of the parade organized by the delegation from Mary- 
land and West Virginia. In the latter party were residents of Mineral, Grant 
and Preston counties. West Virginia, and Garrett and Allegheny counties, 
Maryland, the crowd coming principally from Piedmont, West Virginia, and 
Bloomton, Maryland. They came in a special train of fifteen coaches and were 
accompanied by two bands, the Gilbert Military Band and the Consolidated 
Band, both of Piedmont. The introductory address was made by Hon. E. A. 
SiNCELL, of Oaldand, Maryland. The ladies from Martm's Ferry were intro- 
duced by Harry Pratt without any formal speech. Major McKinley greeted 
them personally and addressed them in his talk to the other delegation. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens : It gives me much pleasure to gi"eet representa- 
tives from the States of West Virginia and Maryland — one of them among the 
oldest States of the American Union, and the other among the youngest and 
newest ; but both equal in the great sisterhood of States and both having the 
same interest in the progress, development and glory of the Union, which we 
love even more than our own State. (Applause.) I am glad to be assured by 
your spokesman that both States can be counted this year in the Republican 
column ; and if on the evening of the third day of November the result should 
be different, then I shall not regard your spokesman as a good prophet. (Much 
laughter and applause.) The State of West Virginia was Republican two years 
ago. The State of Maryland was Republican a year ago. I know of no good 
reason why you should alter your respective verdicts then rendered in favor of 
Republican representatives ; do you? (Cries of 'No,' 'No,' 'There are reasons why 
we shouldn't.' ) The people of tlie whole earth are divided into great governmental 
systems, the projectors of each believing that their system will best subserve their 
country's interests and best secure the highest destiny for their own people. We 
think we have the best system under the sun. It is certainly the freest, for up to 
this hour, this has been a Nation not of dishonor, but of honor; and I believe 

507 



the people of this country, North, South, East and West, will maintain the un- 
sullied honor of our Government and the unquestioned integrity of our cur- 
rency forever. (Great cheering.) What we want in this country is an oppor- 
tunity to develop it. (Applause and cries of 'Yes. sir, that's what we want.') 
Your two States are only waiting for the magic touch that will unfold the wealth 
of treasures which the Almighty has put into your hills. You were just beginning, 
prior to 1892 to experience the largest development you had ever known. Your 
coal and your iron, your splendid industries scattered all over the two States 
were enjoying the very highest prosperity that had ever been enjoyed. Suddenly 
confidence was shaken. Business was paralyzed. Men had no faith in the future. 
Men did not know what was to await them in their business. Capitalists sat 
with their money hoarded in strong boxes, and while capital is so hoarded labor 
is idle on the streets — all because there is no confidence, all because the people 
in their might did what they have a right to do always. They changed from a 
policy under which we had been operating for more than half the lifetime of the 
Government and entered upon a new policy under which, whenever it had pre- 
vailed in this country, we had realized business depression — and from that hour 
to this, this country has suffered. Every interest has suffered, every industry 
and every workingman in his income and his wages ; and the Government itself 
has suffered in revenues, and has been forced to go into debt and borrow money. 
I take it that no man around me believes in such a policy. (Cheers.) You 
don't want to pursue any such a debt-creating policy ; you don't want to pursue 
a policy that impoverishes the people and depletes the public treasury. We want 
to get confidence back. The only way to get it back is to defeat the party 
that destroyed confidence, and to put into power the party that for more 
than a third of a century conducted this Government to the highest devel- 
opment and the greatest prosperity it ever possessed. (Continued cheers and 
cries of 'You are right,' and 'That's the way to talk.') We might just as well 
commence now to have the whole world know that our people intend to take 
care of themselves and do their own work in the United States, and not suit the 
convenience of any other country. (Continuous applause and cries of 'Good,' 
'Good,' and 'That's right.') The Eepublican Party proposes to preserve this 
splendid home market for American farmers and agi'iculturalists, and to open 
the American workshops to the American workingmen. (Renewed 
cheers.) This is the policy of the Eepublican Party. It's the true American 
policy, it's the policy of patriotism, of home, of country, and the policy that 
represents each and every great and valued interest in the United States. Then, 
my fellow citizens, there is another thing we propose to do We pro- 
pose to prevent the inauguration in this country of a system of finance such as 
they have in Mexico and China. (Great applause.) We propose to have our 
dollars always worth a hundred cents each everywhei*e. (Continued cheering and 
cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') Good in Maryland, good in We?t Virginia, good in every 
State of the American Union, and good in every commercial center of the world. 
This the kind of money we have today and it is the kind we propose to continue. 
We want everybody to understand that we never lowered the standard of 
public honor, and after more than a hundred and twenty years of existence we 
don't propose to do it now. (Applause.) We want the whole world to know 
that we do not believe that we can enrich ourselves by depreciating our dollar 
and changing our standard of value. Then« my feUow^ citizens, more than that 
and above that, far overshadowing every question, is the question of govern- 
ment itself, andVe must establish once for all that this is a Government of law, 
and that the courts of justice shall be maintained in their integrity and incor- 

508 



ruptibility. (Applause.) The only way we can work out our highest destiny is 
by always being honest and observing those great fundamental principles of 
justice and righteousness that have characterized our citizenshijv from the 
beginning of the Government down to the present. Next Tuesday you will 
have an opportunity to express your views upon public questions by the ballot- 
Every man's ballot is his own ; it belongs to nobody else ; it is to be controlled 
by nobody else ; and the only guide you want for its use is that which you be- 
lieve will be best for your fii-eside and family, for your country and your 
counti'y's welfare. (A voice, 'We will vote for McKinley,' followed by applause 
and laughter.) I thank you for this call. Another delegation is coming. 
This year delegations are coming from every quarter of the country, for this is 
a year of genuine patriotism and not partyism. (Renewed cheering.) It will 
give me pleasure to meet and greet each one of my fellow citizens from Mary- 
land and West Virginia." (Three cheers.) 

CLEVELAND WORKINQMEN'S GREETING. 

The reviewing stand, from which Major McKixley witnessed so many 
parades and from which so many speeches were made, was replaced, Tuesday 
morning. Scarcely was the work finished than there was occasion for its use. The 
Maryland and West Virginia delegations were not yet out of the yard when the 
Olevelanders marched up North Market street. This party of nearly a thousand 
men, really contained three delegations comprising the Sound Money Clubs of 
the Upson Nut Company, headed by Kirk's band of Cleveland, and of the 
Lamson-Sessions Company and the Peck, Wilcox Company, headed by the Grand 
Army Band of Canton. The introductory address was made for the combined 
delegations by William McKenzie. 

riajor ricKinlc' > Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I give sincere welcome to the representatives of 
the three manufactoi'ies of the city of Cleveland, for which your spokesman 
has already presented assurances of good will and support. I have observed in 
this campaign the great interest which the men of toil have in the rightful 
settlement of the questions presented to the American people at the ballot 
box. I do not know of any portion of our population that should be 
more deeply and personally, and are more vitally interested in the success of 
right principles than the men who depend upon their daily toil for a living. 
(Applause. ) This whole question of American development is to a great degree 
a question of labor more than anything else. We have in this country just as 
good machinery as they have in Europe and just as skilled workingmen, who 
possess quite as much inventive genius as can be found in the world. (Ap- 
plause.) The only reason we want a tariff, aside from revenue purposes, is to 
protect the American workingman and the American scale of wages against the 
cheaper labor and lower scale of wages prevailing in other parts of the world. I 
have always believed that it was true statesmanship to adopt that policy that 
would give to labor and American citizenship just as high a reward for toil 
as possible. (Cheers.) I have never believed that free trade, or partial free 
trade, would be a good thing for the United States ; for I have always recognized 
the difference between the labor conditions in the old w^orld and the new. I 
have always recognized, what every thoughtful man must recognize, that free 
trade would open up our markets to foreign products as freely as to American 

509 



products and that this would mean idleness, or cheap wages, to our working- 
men, and that it would bring our standard down to the European standard. 
To this 7 have always stood, and will always so stand, unalterably opposed. 
(Loud cheers.) I believe it is the business of every nation to work out the 
highest destiny of its own people. We are a peculiar Nation— different from 
any other in the world in this, that every man in our country is given a voice 
in the control of the Government. (Cheers.) We must, therefore, have, as 
far as possible, free and independent citizenship, which can not come with 
extreme poverty and reduced wages, but must come from better wages that 
will give us better homes with more cheer and comfort. Ours is a Government 
that can not afford to divide its people into classes. It can not afford to array 
■one part against the other; it can not afford to array one section against anoth- 
er, because we are all equal citizens and have equal power by the ballot. The 
better off all our people are, the better citizens they ai-e, and the better citizens 
we have, the better country this will be. (Applause.) And so, in all my public 
life, in talking to my old friends and neighbors,! have insisted upon a tariff 
high enough to protect American products against those foreign products 
which compete with them, and to make up the difference between the wages 
paid in Europe and those paid in America. (Applause.) You have tried the 
other policy. Since 1861 until 1894 we had been living under a protective tariff 
(when a change was made under the new Administration) so that it was hai-d for 
people to believe that industrial conditions had anything to do with wages ; 
but they have discovered in the last three years that cheap foreign goods and 
cheap labor displace American goods and labor and the American workingman. 
You have the best argument in the world on that point from your own 
exjierience. (Applause.) We can not get on without money, for it takes more 
than a million dollars every twenty-four hours to run this Government The only 
way to get money is by taxation — by taxing foreign products, or by direct taxa- 
tion of our people upon their incomes, wages and lands. Is there any question 
about how best to raise the money to run this Government? It is better to tax 
the products of other people than our own, and so protect our own people, shops 
and manufacturers. (Loud cheers.) You will have an opportunity to settle 
that question by your votes next Tuesday, for this is a Government that rests 
upon the consent of the governed, and as you vote next Tuesday, so will our 
governmental policy be for the next four years. Besides we want to advise the 
whole world that we are not a Nation of repudiators. (Loud cheers.) AVe 
want, when we have worked a full day, to be paid in full dollars tliat do not de- 
preciate over night, and if there are any of you of foreign birth who wish to 
send a little back to the old folks in your fatherland, you want to be sure that 
it is just as good there as it is in the United States. (Applause.) Then we 
want, by a policy of sound money and a protective tariff, to restore confidence to 
the business world ; and we can not restore confidence to the business world 
by threatening the repudiation of our debts, I have talked longer than I had 
Any idea of doing, but looking into your earnest faces, I could not help feeling 
that you intend to vote next Tuesday for what, governed by your own consciences 
you consider best, not for me, not for my party, but for yourselves, and for our 
common country." (Loud cheers and cries of "For McKixley," "McKinley.") 

STEEL WORKERS FROM MINGO JUNCTION. 

Major McKixley was called upon by about 500 iron and steel workers from 
the Mingo Junction Iron and Steel Works, at one o'clock, Tuesday, October 24th. 

510 



In the party were a lai'ge number of ladies, who, upon arriving at the home, 
presented Mrs. McKikley a circular floral piece made of chrysanthemums in 
imitation of a gold dollar. In one side, in gold letters, were the words: "In 
God We Trust — November 3,> 1896," and on the reverse side was the motto: 
"Protection and Prosperity, March 4, 1897." For "Mother" McKinley they 
brought a basket of very fine flowers. The delegation was headed by the Can- 
ton Troop and Citizens' Committee, who escorted them from the railway depot. 
The visitors were introduced by Captain N. J. XJkquhakt. Mrs. W. H. Bead- 
ley spoke in behalf of the ladies. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : Your spokesman seems rather cheerful under this 
coercion he talks about. (Loud laughter. ) I am very glad to meet the men 
and women of Mingo Junction and of the Junction Iron Company. You are not 
strangers to me, for many, many times I have addressed you, either in the city 
of Steubenville, or at your own works, and I recall, as I look into your faces, 
that the last visit I made your great plant, was when I spoke upon a platform 
built of iron and steel billets. (Applause.) I remember the warm gi-eeting you 
gave me upon each occasion, and following that visit I recall the splendid Ke- 
publican vote we had from your place. I take this opportunity to thank you, one 
and all, not only for the gi-eeting that you gave me at your homes but for the 
splendid support that you gave to the gi-eat Kepublican cause. (Applause.) 
You are here today, as your spokesman has well said, moved by the same in- 
spirations that have brought hundreds of thousands dui-ing the last two months 
from every part of our common country. You are here because you are citizens 
of a great Republic, and are proud of American citizenship ; for each and every 
one of you have a ballot, which is our manner of expressing a freeman's will. 
You are here because there are to be settled the most vital questions, affecting 
every interest of our country. (Applause.) Questions affecting our products, 
our wages, our manufactures, the prosperity of our people and the progress of 
the Nation itself. Questions affecting the public honor and the credit of the 
Government of the United States, of public law and order and of domestic tran- 
quility. •' These are on every man's and woman's minds, for the women are as much 
interested in the rightful solution of these vital National questions as the men. 
(Cheers.) I am glad to see the wives and daughters of the men of Mingo here today, 
marching together, and keeping step under the glorious old Stars and Stripes which 
we all love so well. What will your answer be, my countrymen, to those several 
questions ? Your ballot must express your judgment upon every^one of 
them. There is no mistake as to what a Eepublican ballot means this year. 
It means a protective tariff ; a tariff that will uphold the integrity and intelli- 
gence of American labor ; a tariff that will raise enough money to keep fhis Gov- 
ernment from the necessity of borrowing. (Cries of 'That's what we want,' and 
cheers.) It means the stopping of debts and deficiencies in the public treasury 
and the ending of tlie want, the misery, and the idleness of the American work- 
ingman ; that the credit of the Government of the United States must be 
sustained, and that the honor of the Government of the United States, which 
for more tlran a century has been unquestioned and unquestionable, must never 
be tarnished or impaired. (Applause.) It means that every dollar of the 
currency of the United States, whether gold, silver, or paper, must be worth just 
what it professes to be, and that is, one hundred cents. (Cheers.) It must be 
worth, too, as much in the hands of the poor as in the hands of the rich; in the 

511 



humble home as in the great l)ank ; and abroad as at home ; and when we give 
a full day's work of brain or brawn to our employer, we want him to pay us 
in muney that will not depreciate in a night (loud cheers) so that we shall not 
have to consult the market reports in our daily newspapers next morning to 
determine its value. (Cheers.) We have that kind of money now. Let it be 
understood from this time on that we must always have a stable and unlluctu- 
nting currency and sound money, so that when a man buys a manufacturing 
plant he can tell at the end of a year whether or not it has been a profitable 
investment. This is all I have to say, my friends, except to thank you from the 
bottom of my heart for the warm and cordial greeting you have given me this 
morning and for your warm assurances of support on election day." (Loud 
cheers.) 

EXCURSION FROn NEW ENGLAND. 

The Boston Herald excursion reached Canton at two o'clock, Tuesday after- 
noon, October 27th. The delegation numbering 200, was composed of both Demo- 
crats and Republicans, but all sound money men. Hon. Fr.wk ^Y. Rollins, 
President of the New Hampshire State Senate, introduced the party, saying 
among other things : 

" Major McKinley : We bring you greetings from New England. Two hun- 
dred of the sons and daughters of New England have journeyed here to lo(jk into 
your face, to grasp your hand, and wish you godspeed. We bring you greetings 
from the State of Maine, with its 50,000 majority. (Applause.) From tlie State 
of New Hampshire, which promises you 25,0C0 majority. (Applause.) From the 
State of Vermont, with its 40,000 majority. (Renewed applause.) From the State 
of Massachusetts, which will give you 200,000 majority. (Cheering.) From the 
State of Rhode Island, which will give you 15,000 majority. (Cheering.) And from 
the State of Connecticut, which will give you 30,000 majority. (Continuous 
cheers.) We bring you good tidings ; we are the harbingers of victory ; a por- 
tion of the mighty army, grander in honesty, virtue and intellect than any host 
ever gathered under one standard, which is marching toward the polls to cast 
its ballots for you on the third of November. (Applause.) You have received 
delegations from nearly every section of the country, but this is the first one 
from New England. You must not think from this that the peo])le of the 
East are lukewarm in the cause. Nowhere in this broad land do hearts beat 
more warmly for William McKinley, honest money and protection ; nowhere 
is there more singleness of purpose, more unselfish patriotism. Our j)eople are 
not demonstrative, but no good cause ever prospered without them ; their rec- 
ord is clean and white ; there is no stain ui>on their escutcheon. (Applause.) 
We represent a laboring people. Our wealth has been wrung from a stubborn 
soil by unremitting labor. Look into the faces of those w^ho accompany me. 
You will see no idlers, no drones, not one among them but knows the value of 
an honest dollar from having worked for it, as did their fathers before them. 
(Applause.) Today the hundreds of streams and rivers which turned thvi spindles 
of our prosperity run idly murmuring to the sea, while our operatives wait with 
folded hands and anxious eyes the outcome of the struggle ; but the hilis and 
valleys of New England are now clad in the golden glory of the autumn, em- 
blematic of the golden dawn of prosperity which is to follow this night of 
death and inactivity. (Cheers.) We do not come to you as self-seeker.s. We 
claim no office, no gifts. Our motives are as pure and unselfish as were those 
of the Pilgrims of old. Never before in any land, I believe, has such a spectacle 

512 



been witnessed. Great bands of people, laying aside their business) their work, 
their professions, and journeying hundreds of miles simply to grasp the hand of 
a man, to hear a few words from his lips, and then turn about and return 
quietly to their homes. (Cheers.) "What does it mean? Does it not evince a 
great uprising of the people, a determined purpose to place the country before 
self, the flag before all? It is patriotism, pure and undefiled. I can not for- 
bear to speak one word for New Hampshire, the State of my birth, the State I 
love. From her rocky hills and teeming cities I bring you the love and respect 
of her people. Their eyes are upon you; their trust is in your integrity." 
(Great cheering.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Colonel Eollins axd My Fellow Citizens: This public manifestation of 
the zeal of New England for the Eepublican cause and the triumph of 
Republican principles is most encouraging and inspiring. I do not 
feel that New England, people are altogether strangers to me. (Cries 
of 'Not a bit of it,' 'Of course not,' and 'We've heard of you before.') 
I have met them at thejr great meetings in public discussion for now 
nearly twenty years, and it has been my observation that whatever considera- 
tions move New England to any action, move every otlier part of our com- 
mon country. ^. Great applause and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') What is good for 
New England is good for Ohio (Cries of 'Sure,' 'Sure,' and 'Right you are,' and 
applause.) What is good for New England is good for the great West. (Cries 
of 'That's right.') AVhat is good for one part of our country is good for every 
part. (Tremendous applause.) This is a year, my fellow citizens, when parti- 
sanship counts for but little and patriotism for everything. (Cries of 'Good,' 
'Good,' and 'You are right,' followed by loud cheers.) This assemblage fur- 
nishes an impressive tribute to the cause of National honor and the upholding of 
the American name. No other audience, anywhere, could I more properly ad- 
dress on the subject most dear to my heart and most dear to the American 
people, I am sure, than this assemblage from dear old New England. (Cries of 
'Good,' 'Good,' and 'Thanks,' and tremendous applause.) We have presented 
in this campaign a question that should in no sense be political, partisan or 
sectional; a strange but very serious question, astounding, indeed, at this junc- 
ture of our National affairs ; a question fraught with the greatest peril to every 
interest of the United Stated. The problem is not one of the present, but of 
the tomorrow and of the hereafter — the bold, bald question of National integri- 
ty and National honor. (Great cheering.) Both these are involved in the die 
of our ballots one week from today. (A voice, 'We will cast them the right 
way, too.') It is not a question simply as to whether one party, or another 
shall win, as in times past — that sinks into comparative insignificance, in a 
crisis lilie tliis — but it is a question whether now, in our greatest strength and 
majesty, we shall proclaim to the world, that we are a Nation of people that 
can be trusted, or whether we will allow it to be said that we, the people of the 
United States, believe in paying our honest debts in bits of metal stamped 
in the nanie and by the authority of the great Republic as worth a hundred 
cents for all dues, public and private, when in fact they are worth but fifty 
cents. (Cries of 'Hear,' 'Hear,' and tremendous cheering.) My fellow 
countrymen, the mere staten\ent of the proposition brings the instant answer 
of indignant and instinctive condemnation. (Cries of 'Amen,' and great 
applause.) My friends, I do not know what you may think of such a proposi- 

513 



tion, except as I judge of your past history, resplendent as it is and has been in 
the annals of human affairs and government ; but I feel, as I believe all Ameri- 
ijans must feel, when I contemplate such a project, like invoking the prayer of 
Patrick Henry, when he cried aloud with fervent voice: 'Forbid it, Almighty 
God.' (Cries of 'Good,' and 'Amen.') "We can not afford to be indifferent, list- 
less or unconcerned on such a question, and we are not. ^len in every part of 
the country are quickened into activity to avert the threatened danger as they 
have seldom, if ever been quickened before. There is more in life, vital as they 
are, than food, lands, and wealth— more in life than power and riches. What- 
ever our condition, relatively speaking, there comes a still small voice more 
penetrating than the tempest, that asks and insists that we shall answer: 'Is 
this just, true and righteous?' And that question addressed to every man's 
conscience must follow us into every election booth in the country. (Great 
cheering and cries of 'It will,' 'It will.') If we could profit by public dishonor, 
we would still spurn it, but no nation, state or individual ever did or can profit 
by dishonor. (Cries of 'True,' 'True,' and 'You are right,' and I'enewed ap- 
plause.) I repeat, my fellow citizens of New England, that there is more in 
life than the accumulation of riches and property or the development of 
material resources. The essence of life is right living and its exaltation is in 
decency and honor. (Continued cheers.) The essence and strength of Govern- 
ment among men is virtue and honor, liberty and law. The men of New England 
will spurn, as they have always spurned, repudiation or dishonor in any form or 
guise in which it may be presented. (Cries of 'Indeed we will,' and gi-eat 
applause.) On December 20th, next, I believe, you celebrate the 376th anni- 
versary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. The shades of over three 
centuries are looking down upon you and us, for your history is ours, and. 
your triumphs the common heritage of us all. (Cheers.) With the Pilgrims 
came the institution of freedom of speech, freedom of faith and worship, 
individual responsibility, and inviolable personal and public honor. With 
them came the priceless gem of American liberty; with them came love 
of family, church and school and the blessed institutions of public law and 
order ; of a reverence for courts and respect for constituted authority (cries of 
'Hear,' 'Hear' and great cheering) and these are to this day the leading char- 
acteristics of our people, the very corner stone of our National fabric.^ j^'^'V^"^^ 
cheers.) Shall we abandon our love for any of these? (Cries of 'No,' 'No,' 
'Never.') Shall we turn our old time respect into disrespect for them? (Cries 
of 'Never.') You can not forget the town meeting of two centuries ago, when 
even then the voice of the majority was always for the strictest and severest 
public integrity. (Applause.) Has our faith in Republican uistitutions 
weakened? Has patriotism lost any of its force and vigor? (Cries of -No, 
'No,"Notatall.') Has the spirit of Washington and Jefferson and of the 
Adams' and of Lincoln and of Grant left the American people of today? I 
answer no, forever no. Will we yield to the suggestion of National dishonor, 
and consent to a debased standard of value? I do not believe it. American 
spirit was never higher, stronger or firmer than now; American sentiment w.i. 
never dearer to the hearts of the people than now; the love of the American 
name, which has hitherto never been besmirched, and upon which no dishonor 
has ever settled, is still close to the consciences and hearts of the American 
people, stirred as they are to their profoundest depths by the new and 
unexpected peril which confronts them. (Applause.) AVe will not forsake the 
paths of our fathers ; we will not assist in any act of dishonor to this Republic : 
we will not aid in the destruction of the confidence, which is the very basis or 

514 



our credit and business prosperity. New England, with its glorious ancestral 
memories, guided by the spirit of those who made our first gi-eat declaration of 
liberty, and who helped frame the Constitution of the United States, and those 
who have since sustained and upheld public faith and public honor, will not be 
found this year, or any other year, on the side of repudiation. (Cries of 'You 
are right,' and 'That's so,' and great cheering. ) That grand group of heroes, that 
noble band who periled life, future and honor in the cause of freedom, the 
signers of the Magna Charta of our liberties — John Hancock, John and Samuel 
Adams, Elbridge Gerry and Kobert Treat Paine, of Massachusetts ; Josiah 
Bartlett, Matthew Thornton and William Whipple of New Hampshire; 
Stephen Hopkins and William Ellery of Rhode Island ; and Roger Sherman, 
Oliver Wolcott and William Williams of Connecticut — whose descendants 
still live among you — could never look down approvingly upon any act that 
would blacken the good name of the country for which they risked so much. 
Nor will their descendants be false to them now. (Cheers.) Men of all sec- 
tions. North, South, East and West, will not now falter in the presence of an 
impending danger. (Applause.) What we want in this country above all else, 
is to keep and sustain our honor. (Cries of 'We will doit.' and applause.) My 
fellow citizens, we want to adopt a policy that will give the workingmen of this 
country an opportunity to work. (Vociferous cheers.) We want not only a 
policy that will settle and start the wheels of industry and utilize the mighty 
water power, to which your spokesman has referred, but we want a policy that 
will put enough money into the Treasury each and every twenty-four hours to 
pay our running expenses. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and 'That's right,' and 
great applause.) No form of words, and no eloquence can portray the duty of 
New England in the pending campaign better than those of your own illustrious 
son, Daniel Webster, that is 'To stretch forth the arm, with whatever vigor it 
may retain, against all who would in party strife, or blind ambition, hawk or 
tear at our National honor, our fair name, our future, our hope.' Men of New 
England^ I know you will guard it from blot, or suspicion, and contribute 
your part to add further and greater glory to it, and you need not fear, aye, 
you can go back home without the slightest apprehension that the great West 
will be one whit behind you in sustaining the holy cause of country and our 
proud American name. (Continuous cheering.) They, with the men of the 
South, will march with you, side by side, contributing each their share to 
the continued enthronement of public honor, and the triumph of sound money 
uniting with you in upholding the inspiring old maxim 'Honesty is the best 
policy' , believing that no people can permanently prosper without obedience to the 
eternal laws of justice and right. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and great cheering.) 
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this call— not as a tribute to me, 
far from that, but as a tribute to the holiest cause in which citizens of a free 
Republic ever were engaged, that of maintaining their honor and credit. It 
will give me pleasure to meet and greet each of you personally." (Great ap- 
plause.) 

A DEnONSTRATION BY NORWALK LADIES. 

The Ladies' McKinley Club, of Norwalk, Ohio, brought about 250 women to 
Canton, Thursday, October 27th, and it was certainly the handsomest delegation 
of the day. They arrived at 2:30 and were met by a reception committee. 
When the marshal, Mrs. A. T. Bloxham, had massed her command on the lawn. 
Major McKinley appeared on the porch in charge of Mrs. L. C. Laylin and 

515 



Mrs. George S. Titus, of Norwalk, and Mrs. William R. Day and Mrs. Gkoroe 
B. Frease, of Canton. Mrs. Day said : "Governor McKixley— On tliis brij^ht 
October day, permit me to present to you some of the briglit ladies of Norwalk, 
among them Mrs. Laylin, who will now address you." Mrs. Laylix then said: 
"Major McKinley: Permit me to present the ladies of Norwalk and 
vicinity. We come today a band of earnest, zealous women to bring to you and 
your good wife our greetings and best wishes. We have long honored and revered 
you as the highest typeof American manhood, the ideal son, husband, citizen and 
statesman ; a man whose every act has been pure and noble, and who will grace 
the chair filled by WAsrrixGTON, Lincoln and Garfield. Though we are allowed 
no voice in the coming contest, yet we have the right to express our preferences. 
AVe want a statesman for our President, not a demagogue. AVe want a i)arty in 
power that stands for purity, honesty, financial stability and protection to 
American industry, and not one that favors anarchy, repudiation and demorali- 
zation of our business interests. Though we are not politicians, yet we love our 
country and glory in those principles that will promote in the highest itegree 
the welfare of our people. And we believe, sir, that you represent those prin- 
ciples, and that your triumph in the coming contest is already assured. We 
wish to assure you that we shall use our influence in every way possible to help 
roll u\) that glorious majority that will greet you one week from today. And 
our prayers and blessings shall go with you as you go forth to lead our beloved 
country into the golden era of prosperity." (Enthusiastic applause.) 

Major McKin ley's Response. 

" Mrs. Laylin and Ladies: It gives me sincere pleasure to receive this 
visit from the women of Norwalk, made to Mrs. McKinley and i'..yself. She 
vei-y deeply regrets that by reason of illness she is denied the pleasure and 
honor of receiving you personally, and bids me to say to you that she appre- 
ciates most highly the compliment and honor of this call. It is a good omen 
when the women of the country manifest an interest in public affairs. That 
they should have and show a deep concern is not at all suri)rising,or unnatural, 
for none can be affected more than they. They profit from good laws and suffer 
from bad laws quite as much as the men. Every interest which they have is in 
favor of good government, good morals, clean politics, and wise legislation. 
The interest that they are exhibiting in the rightful settlement of the public 
questions at this time, can not but be helpful and their influence elevating and 
inspiring. They have been effective for good since the world began. They ex- 
alt every cause they touch, and never can be enlisted for the wrong. It will not 
be foi-gotten that 'the hand that rocks the cradle writes the songs for the mil- 
lions,' and, in some of our States*, wields the ballot. The voice that sings the 
lullaby, that sweetest song of all, entrances the world with dearest notes, and 
speaks with mighty eloquence and always for the right. The head that plans 
for the family is never too much occupi'^d to embrace the cause of country. The 
hand that made bandages for the country's soldiers will never cast a ballot 
against the country's honor, or against the American home. It is incapable of 
striking a blow against country and will never cast a ballot except for the coun- 
try's glory. I congratulate you upon what woman has done iti the past for 
humanity, mqrality, and civilization ; and I congratulate you from the bottom 
of my heart upon the wider opportunities that are before you for still greater 
usefulness in all that heli>s mankind, blesses the race, and elevates the country. 
In closing a sanitary fair in Washington, Mr. Lincoln, on March 18, 188-1, said: 

516 



'I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy. I have never studied 
the art of paying compliments to women, but I must say that if all that 
has been said by orators and poets, in praise of women, was applied to the 
women of America, it would not do them justice for their cunduct during this 
war.' I will close by saying, as Mr. Lincoln closed : 'God bless the women of 
America.' " (Great ap],ilause and waving of handkerchiefs.) 



TWO HUNDRED INSURANCE MEN. 

Tiie last callers of the day were about 200 insurance underwriters of Cleve- 
land, organized as a Sound Money Club, and made up of men of all parties, 
united in the support of the Republican ticket and platform. Captain A. E. 
Manning, President of the Club, presented the delegation. 

flajor McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: This is a campaign of many and interesting phases.- 
I doubt, if ever in our history, we have had a political contest just like the 
present; one which has drawn into active participation So many men and 
W'omen from every section of our common country. Men and women are vying 
with each other in demonstrating their zeal for the principles for which the 
Republican Party stands this year, and their desire for the triumph of those 
principles. I do not know of any agency that has been more effective in its 
nature, or that has furnished more and better reasons, for the maintenance of 
sound money and public honor, than the insurance companies of the United 
States. (Loud cheers.) Some'of the best literature touching the whole money 
question has eminated from tlie insurance companies, and it is a great tribute 
to them, this magnificent stand they have taken for the maintenance of an hon- 
e«t dollar, and to insure private and public confidence to the citizens of our 
country. (Applause.) I am glad to meet and greet you. You know quite as well 
as the men of any other calling, or profession, when we have prosperity, and 
when adversity. Your business is good only when general business is good and 
your business is quite as poor as anybody else's when the general business of 
the country is poor. Therefore, you are interested in that policy which insures 
to the whole country the highest and widest prosperity and that insures to the 
American Republic the greatest development. (Cheers.) You are interested 
because without commercial honesty there can be no prosperity. You are 
interested in maintaining the currency of the country and keeping the dollar 
worth a hundred cents at home and abroad, good everyday of the year and good 
everywhere, and you know we can never get that confidence back again, which 
is so large a part of the credit of the country and so essential to our prosperity, 
by threatening to pay our debts in fifty-two cent dollars. (Loud cheers.) Then, 
again, you, with your fellow countrymen generally, are interested in public law 
and order ; you are interested in the perpetuation of free institutions in every 
branch of the Federal Government. We must settle for all time that this is a 
Government under law and regulated by law. (Loud cheers. ) AVe must show 
that law is supreme over all. (Renewed cheering.) And why should not law 
be supreme over all ? We are different from any other people in that we make 
our own laws; and, if we do not like them, we do not have to brea]^, or violate 
them, but can elect public servants that will change them. I thank you for this 
call, and bid you good afternoon." (Loud cheers.) 

517 



THE FAMOUS CANTON TROOP. 

On the morning of Wednesday, October 28th, Canton Troop called in a 
body at the McKinley residence. In the short address made by Captain Hahuy 
Frease, particular reference was made to the coercion charge and to the state- 
ment made by Mr. Bryan that members of the Troop were receiving pay for 
their services. The Troop was composed of old soldiers, business and professional 
men and workingmen. After introducing the members individually, Captain 
Frease made substantially the following remarks : 

"Major McKinley : We have been accused of doing for mercenary purpo- 
ses, what we have done in the way of escorting delegations to your home and 
some even think they hear the jingle of the money we have received, in our 
pockets. (Laughter.) But I want to assure you it has been purely a desire to 
serve you, and the cause you represent, and to see that the callers that you 
have received from different parts of the country should have efficient escort 
from the depots to your home. Another thing we can assure you ; we have had no 
trouble to coax the people to come here. (Laughter and applause.) We will 
take this occasion to say that it will be our pleasure to serve you in the same 
capacity as long as these delegations continue to come. We also wish to thank 
you most heartily for the courtesy shown us from the reviewing stand on every 
occasion, and we want you to feel that you have our friendship, and that the 
desire of the Troop is that you may be as successful now as you have been in 
the past." (Three cheers were then given for Major McKinley.) 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"Gentlemen: I certainly appreciate your kind expressions and reciprocate 
them fully. I know you will be glad to be assured that you have made a great 
impression upon the people who have come to Canton from all over the country. 
I am sure that in no campaign in the past, where there have been delegations, 
have the receptions been so cordial and so hearty as they have been in the city 
of Canton. This has been mainly through your efforts, and I doubt if a delega- 
tion comes here that does not go away with a better opinion of our little city 
than when it came. It goes without saying that I appreciate, more than I 
can find words to express, your splendid loyalty and devotion to the city and to 
me, and I hope that next Tuesday you will in the result find some reward 
for your unselfishness." (Applause.) 

PATRIOTIC WELLSVILLE WOHEN. 

A regular train on the Fort Wayne road, Wednesday, October 281h, brought 
a party of seventy -five women from Wellsville, Ohio. They came to pay their 
resjieets to :Major McKinley and to present Mrs. McKinley some choice fiowers. 
Eain was falling when they arrived and instead of going to the housn they 
w^ere taken to the Tabernacle where Major McKinley went to greet them. Dr. 
• B. R. Fakke acted as their spokesman. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens and Ladies of Wellsville: I thank you sincerely 
for the compliment, courtesy, and encourag(Mnent of this cull. No greater 
strength can come to our cause than that of the support of the loyal wi>men of 
■(■|,.^ rTpi,,:.fl States. Th<^ govevmnent nf the American hor.-je is like the (Govern- 



ment of the American Republic, it is one of mutual interests, of right and recip- 
rocal obligations and duties. The American home lies at the very foundation of 
our political fabric. If the home be pure and virtuousy American citizenship 
will be pure and virtuous, and with that characteristic of American citizen- 
ship our Government must be of the best. The women of the United States in 
every crisis of our history have been for the right. They were a mighty power 
in our great Civil War. They upheld the soldiers who were fighting at the front 
with their prayers, and sympathy, and their labors at home. This year it is a 
good omen to find them so deeply concerned in the questions of the National 
contest. You have quite as much interest in good government, wise laws, and 
good public officials as the men can have ; for you are just as much affected by 
wise or unwise legislation, as the men themselves, and any support you give is 
always sure to be on the right side. (Cheers.) Among the many evidences of 
encouragement I have received, standing as I dp the representative of a great 
cause and party, there has been nothing that has given me greater inspiration 
or higher hope for the future than the feeling that the women of the United 
States were enlisted in the cause that stands for the good of our homes, the good 
of the State and our common country. (Loud cheers.) Mrs. McKinley regrets 
exceedingly that she has been prevented from meeting each of you personally. 
It is a source of very deep regret to her that she can not welcome to her own 
home the women of Wellsville, who have done us the honor to pay this call. I 
trust you will have a pleasant stay in our city and wish you a safe return to 
your homes. If it is your desire, it will give me great pleasure to meet each 
of you personally." (Applause.) 



SIX HUNDRED VISITORS FROM BUFFALO. 

A party of about 600 people went from Buffalo to Cleveland by steamer and 
thence came to Canton by rail, on Wednesday, October 28th. The delegation 
was principally composed of the members of the Buffalo Republican League 
Club and the Italian Central Club, both organizations being handsomely uni- 
formed. Addresses were made by Mes.srs. E. P. Close and H. I. Powers. The 
weather being inclement the reception was held in the Tabernacle. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the 
assuring messages which you bring to me from the city of Buffalo and Erie 
county, in the great Empire. State. (Applause.) I do not feel that we are 
altogether strangers, for more than once it has been my pleasure to meet you and 
enjoy your greetings and hospitality. I am glad to meet, at my home, members 
of the Republican League of the Thirty-Third New York District, and to greet 
the Central Italian Club of the city of Buffalo, born in a land other than ours, but 
this year keeping step to the music of the Union and marching with us under the 
glorious Stars and Stripes. (Long and enthusiastic cheering.) I bid you all wel- 
come to my State, city and home. I appreciate that your coming from such a 
distance and at such inconvenience, means that you are deeply and profoundly 
concerned about the outcome of the election which occurs next Tuesday. (Ap- 
plause and cries of 'That's right,' and 'W^e're going to vote right, too.') The Re- 
publican Party occupies this year a post of most distinguished honor and responsi- 
bility. It has been given to few parties, in the history of the American Republic, 
to take the position thus occupied by our grand old i^arty today, standing, as it 

519 . 



does, for country, sound currency, public honor, the supremacy of the law, and 
the great Federal courts, that have been incorruptiljle in tlic jiast and have been 
our safeguard in every time of peril. (Gi'eal; cheering.) The Republican Party 
assumes the responsibility which has been assigned it, and congratulates itself 
that this year, carrying the Hag of our Nation and the standard tliat 
represents the best things in government, that around such a banner will rally 
not only Rei>ublicans but Democrats from every section of our common country. 
(Renewed cheering.) Men born beneath our flag and men born beneath another 
flag, men behmging heretofore to 9ther political parties, are with us this year 
in heart and purpose to save the Nation from dishonor and repudiation. We 
are all interested, whatever 'may have been our political faith in the past, in 
the prosperity of our country. We have suffered now for three years and a half 
from business depression and an absence of business confidence, and the people 
are only waiting this year — waiting im]iatiently — for an oi)portunity to over- 
throw the policy they adopted four years ago and re-inaugurate that si)lendid 
American protective policy that sustains American labor. (Cries of '(xood,' 
'Good' and 'You are right. Major,' followed by tremendous cheers.) We have 
had all the free trade we want in the United States. (Great applause and 
cries of 'You are right,' and 'We have that.') We have not only suffered in our 
occupations and employments, in our incomes and earnings, no matter in what 
profession we have been at work, but we have suffered alike in the revenues and 
credit of the Government itself. (Vociferous cheers.) We want to return 
ti7 that policy that protects and defends American labor, the American 
workshop, and the American market, and takes into account always that the 
best tiling for any country is that which gives work to the men of the country 
and insures labor against idleness. (Prolonged cheering.) Then we want a 
policy that will raise enough money from tariffs and taxation to pay as we go. 
(Cries of 'That's right,' and 'That's the stuff.') Stop debts, deticiencics and 
bonds in time of peace. (Great applause and cries of 'That's right,' 'That's 
good,' and 'Give it to 'em.') Then, my fellow citizens, we want to continue the 
present splendid monetary and financial system we have today, where every 
dollar is the equal of every other dollar, and where each is equal to one hundred 
cents in gold everywhere. (Renewed cheers.) We don't want any short dol- 
lars. (Cries of 'No,' 'No,' and 'You bet we don't.') We have tried short hours 
iii the last three years and a half. (Tremendous laughter and enthusiastic 
applause. ) When we perform an honest day's work in the shop or the factory, on 
the farm or in the great transportation companies of the country, we want to 
receive in payment for our work a dollar that won't depreciate over night. (Cries 
of 'That's right,' followed by prolonged applause.) I am glad to know that the 
great State of New York is aroused this year as she has never been aroused 
before, to the perils of an unsound and dishonest currency. (Api)hiuse.) 
I am glad to be advised that your great State, the first in the sisterhood of 
States— that magnificent Commonwealth, the like of which has no parallel m 
history the world over— is marching almost to a man under the banner of public 
honor and National integrity. (Long and enthusiastic cheers.) I am glad to 
know that party lines are almost totally effaced, for it is no longer a question 
of party, or party triumph, but it is a question of triumph for the country. 
(Renewed cheers.) I bid you take back with you the message that Oliio. and 
the great West, will, with you, unite in securing a victory that shall be significant 
for the honor of our country, for the upholding of jniblic law, for peace and 
tranquility; and against every proposition that would debase or degrade the 
American name or American honor. (Continuous cheering and waving of hats, 

520 



helmets and flags, and cries of 'Good,' 'Good.') I thank you for this visit. It 
is one of hundreds during this remarkable campaign, but I can not permit to 
pass unnoticed the observation of your spokesman, and what had not slipped my 
recollection, that the Thirty-third Congressional district gave to me her loyal 
and devotee? support months and months ago. (Tremendous cheers.) But the 
past is behind us, and what we have to do now is to deal with the future, and 
much of the future is involved in.the ballots that we shall cast next Tuesday. The 
only message I give to you, men of New York, and would give to the men of the 
country everywhere, is to write on your ballots what yeu think and believe will 
be the best for your homes, your communities, your families, your country. I 
thank you." (Tremendous cheering.) 

RAILWAY CLUB FROfl CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA. 

The Kanawha and Michigan Railway's Sound Money Club, of Charleston^ 
West Virginia, several hundred strong, was the next to claim Major McKix- 
ley's attention, and was introduced with a few remarks by Mr. W. W. Bkown. 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

" Mr. Brown and My Fellow Citizens: I give to the Sound Money Club, 
of the Kanawha and Michigan Railway Company, a sincere and hearty welcom^e. 
I am glad to receive word through your spokesman that, acting as free indepen- 
dent citizens, you bring tidings of good will to me as the candidate of the Re- 
publican Party, as well as assurances of your purpose to give to that party your 
unfaltering support on the third day of November. (Applause and cries of 'We 
will.') It is the proud boast of our American citizenship that every one of us is 
equal before the law ; that our Constitution and our laws recognize neither 
creed, color, nor condition, but all alike are amenable to the Constitution and 
laws; all alike enjoy their blessings and benefits; all alike are equal in 
the exercise of that gi-eat soverign power, the ballot, which next Tuesday you 
will, I trust, cast for your own best interests and the interests of your State 
and country. (Cries of 'We will,' and renewed cheering.) Some people seem 
to think that the way to get rich in this country is to depreciate the quality of 
money we have, (laughter) and some people have gone so far as to say that it 
does not make any difference about the quality of the money, so we only ha<^e 
the quantity. (Great laughter.) I think some of the men standing around me 
today, who were across the river during the late Civil War, will remember that 
quality had very much te do with the value of the money, and that while there 
was quantity in plenty of a certain kind of money, the quality of it was so poor 
it would scarcely buy a breakfast. (Cries of 'That's right,' 'That's good,' and 
'Hurrah for McKinley.') General Longstreet recently said in a speech at 
Augusta. Georgia, 'It was said of the Confederate money during the war that a 
big hamper basket full of it was sent to market for a basket full of supplies for 
daily family use. The last breakfast I had in Richmond, before General Lee 
pulled us away from there, was a small steak, plain biscuit and warm water that 
had a faint suspicion of coffee about it ; and this sumptuous repast cost me ex- 
actly twenty-nine dollars in Confederate money, and I felt then I was swindling 
'mine host' as Grant's guns called me to work on the field. I have heard a poor 
private had to pay two hundred dollars for a still scantier meal.' What we 
want in this country, my fellow citizens, no matter where we live, no matter 
what our occupations may be, is a good, honest dollar that has value in it. 

521 



(Cries of 'That's what we want,' and 'You are right.') "When we give our Iiil.or 
to our employer, when w'e give our eiglit or ten hours as a day's work to the 
railroad company, we have given them the best we have, and w^e want in retiirii 
good dollars that represent the full value of the work we give. (Cries 
of 'That's right,' and 'Hurrah for McKinley,' and great applause.) We 
want no depreciated dollars in the United States. "We iiave had sliort hours 
for the last three years and a half. We don't like them and we don't want any 
short dollars. (Cries of 'That's the stuff,' and 'That's no lie.') Then there are 
some people who seem to b««ieve that the way to get on best is to have one class 
arrayed against another. 1 do not believe that. I believe we are all brothers 
and all equal under our Constitution and our flag, and all of us have a right to 
aspire to the highest and best things in a free Government like ours. (Contin- 
uous cheering.) The most glorious part of all our history has demonstrated 
that the poorest and humblest boy, with the poorest surroundings, but with 
clean hands and a pure heart, may reach the highest place in the gift of our 
free Republic. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'That's good,' followed by tremen- 
dous applause.) I spurn the attempt to array one class of my fellow citizens 
against another, and I resent with indignation the idea that workingmcn are 
not patriots. They have been patriots in every crisis. They re<iuire no coer- 
cion to make them love their country, their homes, their wives, their mothers 
and their children. (Loud cheering.) 1 am glad to know that the railroa;: em- 
ployers and employes are marching this year under the same flag— the flag of 
National honor and of public integrity. (Renewed cheering.) I am glad to 
know that the employes of railroad lines all over the United States, for they 
have visited me from nearly every State, are standing togetheT as never before 
for the maintenance of sound currency and for the perpetuity of our free insti- 
tutions that recognize neither class nor creed nor condition. (Great applause.) 
I thank you, my fellow citizens, for this call. We are now so near the time 
when this great jury is to render its verdict, that arguments seem wholly un- 
necessary. I think you are all ready to vote. (Loud shouts of 'We are,' 'We 
are,' and 'We'll vote right, too.') I think you are waiting with supreme im- 
patience for the hour when you can put in the ballot box that little ballot tiiat 
will express the best aspiration of your heart, not only for yourselves, but for 
your families. (Renewed cheering.) I bid you welcome and give you hearty 
greeting to my home. I wish you all a safe return to your homes and I trust 
that after the election shall be over, that the voice of tiie American people will 
be found to be on the side of right, of justice, and of patriotism. I will be ti;lad 
to meet and greet you all personally." (Three rousing cheers were then givi n 
tor the "Next President of the United States.") 



SIX HUNDRED MINERVAITES. 

Minerva, Ohio, was represented on October 2Sth, by about GOO citizens, busi- 
ness men, farmers and laboring men, who came over the Cleveland, Canton and 
Southern road. The delegation was met by the Grand Army Band and Canton 
Troop and escorted to the Tabernacle. There were many women in the delega- 
tion. :sh: Hiram Hostetter, seventy-two years of age, was spokesman for the 
delegation. In the party was Mr. M. Unger, of Minerva, ninety-four years old, 
who cast a ballot for President Jackson ; also Mr. J. E. Hostetter, aged seventy- 
five years. 

522 



riajor McKinley's Response. 

" Mr. Hostetter, Ladies axd Gentlemex: This assemblage of my old 
friends and constituents is a most interesting one, and brings to my mind many 
memories connected with your village and township and their relation to polit- 
ical events of the past. (Applause.) Almost the first political speech I ever 
made was in your town, and around and about me then were the men who are 
around and about me today. The gentleman who presided on that occasion sits 
on tliis platform now — Dr. Hostetter — a citizen of your community. And on 
this platform are the old men who encouraged me in my youth and of whose 
kindness I can never say too much and for which I will ever hold them in tender 
and constant remembrance. (Loud and long continued cheers.) There are in 
this audience young persons who have not yet reached their majority and 
many women who, of course, can not vote, but all of you, men, women and 
children, are this year enlisted in the same holy cause of country and for the 
honor of the Republic you love so much. (Loud cheers.) Old Father Ungee is 
here. (Cries of 'Three cheers for Mr. Unger,' and much applause.) Dear old 
man, I have known him all my life and I want to assure him that although his 
first vote was cast for General Jackson, he is voting this year for tlie same prin- 
ciples which Jackson represented sixty years ago — for Jackson was for a pro- 
tective tariff and sound money. (Loud cheers.) This year, my fellow citizens, 
we must all have the true and genuine American spirit. We have not had so 
much of it since the war but we need it now. Nothing does accomplish so much 
good as a revival of patriotism, and that is what we are having this year from 
one end of the country to the other. (Applause.) All this means that the peo- 
ple are to be trusted with the conduct of the Government and they are fully 
competent of attending to the interests of the Eepublic, and are especially zeal- 
ous this year for the honor and credit of the United States. I am glad to meet 
the men and the women and the boys and girls of Minerva. I am glad to meet 
them here at my home. I am glad to know that this year, as in all the years of 
the past, they are standing for the best in government and for what is right and 
Justin our individual as well as in the Nation's life. (Loud cheers.) We 
might just as well settle this year for all time that this is not a Nation of repu- 
diators, and that we propose to pay every obligation of the Government in the 
best form of money known to the civilized world at the time of payment. (Loud 
cheers.) We do not intend to repudiate either our public, or private obliga- 
tions. (Renewed cheering.) The fair name of this Government has never been 
besmirched and it never, never will be. (Loud and prolonged cheers.) AVe 
created a mighty debt of more than two billions of dollars to preserve this Gov- 
ernment of ours. We gave up the best blood and some of the noblest lives that 
this Republic has produced, that its glory might shine on forever; but, after a 
hundred and twenty years of splendid achievements such as no other Nation 
has ever been able to boast of, some people seem to think that we can be de- 
luded into the theory that we will enrich ourselves by calling fifty-two cents 
worth of silver a dollar. (Laughter and cheers.) We are not to be misled or 
misguided in any such fashion. We hold that the money of this country should 
be as honest and as untarnished as the flag that waves above us, and having paid 
off more than two-thirds of our great war debt — one billion and seven or eight 
hundred millions of it, in the best money known to the world, and having only 
six or seven hundred millions of it to pay, does anybody suppose that this Govern- 
ment is going to enter upon the business of rej)udiating one cent of that great 
debt? I say no, not one. (Cries of 'No. sir,' and loud cheers.) We do not pro- 

523 



pose to have the pensions granted by tlie Cioveniment cut in two by false 
finance. My fellow citizens, the hope of this country and its future, are in the 
keeping of the plain people, in the plain American homps, where virtue pre«;ides 
and truth reigns. You love the things that are good, and, loving them, you are 
going to vote for them, for it will bring honor and glory to the Republic. 
(Cheers.) I thank you for this call more than I can find words to expre.s.-^. Of 
the many, very many, delegations that have come from every part of the coun- 
try, none has touched me more deeply than this assemblage of my fellow citi- 
zens from the eastei-n end of Stark county, and I can never forget that in every 
contest in which I was designated to act as a candidate, your good old township 
supported me with unfaltering loyalty." (Loud and prolonged cheers.) 



FROn TIRO, CRAWFORD COUNTY. 

A small but enthusiastic delegation of farmers and laboring men from Tiro, 
Crawford county, came in on the Fort Wayne road, AVednesday afternoon, Octo- 
ber 2Sth. They were escorted, to the Tabernacle where Major McKixley was 
addressing the Minerva delegation. They waited until the ^Minerva people had 
filed out and then took their places. Mr. Charles McCoxnell presented the 
delegation. 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. McConnell AXD My Fellow Citizexs: I have listened with great 
pleasure and satisfaction to the address of your spokesman and to the assurances 
he has given me of your devotion to the welfare of the country and the progress 
and glory of the Eepublic. I am glad to welcome you to my home and city. 
(Applause.) This is one of the most remarkable campaigns in the history of 
our country. It is remarkable in this that party lines are almost obliterated 
and that the leaders of the old and time-honored Democratic party stand in 
opposition to the Chicago Democratic platform, and are insisting that that 
platform is opposed to the best interests of the country and inimical to its 
honor. So that Democrats and Republicans this year are acting together in a 
common purpose, a purpose which they believe will best subser\e the great 
interests of the United States. I am glad to know that in Crawford county, 
there are many Democrats, old-fashioned Democrats, honest money Democrats, 
who will vote for the Republican Party this year because they believe it stands 
for what is best in government. (Loud cheers.) I hope you will be able to 
send your representative, 'Uncle Stevk' Harris back to Congress this year. 
(Applause.) You elected him Iriumiihantly two years ago. I am glad to meet 
you as farmers, as workingmen and as old comrades. You are all alike interested 
in the subjects that are now before us. What the farmer wants is a restoration 
of the good home market Which he lost three years and a half ago. He wants 
to get back that foreign market, which was opened up by the recii)rocity clause 
of the tariff law of 1890, that splendid market for our surplus agricultural and 
manufacturing products. I take it there is no farmer in the land, who does not 
want that market restored. What the farmer needs after he has done his sowing, 
I'eaping and threshing, is a good market. If he can have it right at home the 
better it is for him. (Applause.) The only way to get a good home market is 
to set all the factories of this country to work, set every wheel in motion, start 
all the fires in our furnaces and put all our idle men to work, and when you 
have dune this, you have created the most magnificent market the world ever 

524 



had. This is the kind of a market you had in 1890. You want it back again, 
and propose to get it back again by your votes next Tuesday. (Loud cheers.) 
We want a protective tariff that will protect the American workingman against 
the cheap labor of other countries. The only way to hold our market is to have 
a protective tariff law, or cut down labor in the United States — which would 
you rather have? (Cries of 'Protection' and loud cheers.) This is the American 
way to do it. "We do not want to reduce wages in this country. The better 
conditions of citizenship we have, the happier and better will be the condition 
of our country. We want a policy that will protect American markets for the 
American farmer. We do not want bad money. We do not want our currency 
depreciated. The older men in this audience will remember that in the days of 
State banks when they sold several bushels of wheat and got a dollar for it, that 
dollar might be good when theygot,it but in the morning they were likely to find 
that the bank had failed. (Laughter.) We do not want oui* currency debased 
so that we shall have to consult our daily newspaper reports every day to see 
what is the value of the so-called silver dollar. We want a full, round dollar, 
and we want above all and more than all these material things, a Govern- 
ment of law. (Loud cheers.) We want the law to be supreme over all and we 
want to sustain the courts of this country, which are the only safeguards of 
the people in times of trouble. Thanking you for the courtesy and compliment of 
this call, I bid you all good morning." (Loud cheers.) 

THE TICKET OF 1869. 

One of the most pleasant incidents of the campaign was the reunion, Wed- 
nesday afternoon, October 28th, of the survivors of the first ticket on which ap- 
peared the name of William McKinley, for public oflBce. This was the Stark 
county Kepublican ticket of 1869. The meeting occurred in Major McKinley's 
library, and the six survivors who attended were Hon. Samcel 0. Bowmax, of 
Massillon, and Hon. Ellis M. Johxsox, of Alliance, nominees for the State 
Legislature ; James W. Uxderhill, for Probate Judge ; T. G. Stanley for Sheriff ; 
Ira M. Allen for Treasurer; and William McKinley, Jr., for Prosecuting At- 
torney. All of these candidates were elected. The affair was arranged by INIr. 
R. E. White, of Alliance, who, when the party assembled at the McKinley 
home introdued Judge Underhill in the following words: 

" Major McKinley : I have the pleasure of coming to your home with a 
delegation, not as large in numbers as many of those that have come to greet 
you, but one that dates back to the beginning of your magnificent public career. 
You are surrounded by those today who, with you, in 1869 led the Eepub- 
lican Party to victory in Stark county. It was a victory not alone in Stark 
county but it was at an election when your gallant commander in the Ai-my was 
chosen Governor of the grandest State in the Union. Since then you, sir, 
have risen by your faithfulness to county, district and State to the same position 
that he held. In 1876 the State of Ohio gave one of her noblest sons to the 
Nation for its President, Rutherford B. Hayes. Now in 1896 the same Nation 
calls you, one of the greatest of Ohio's sons, to the same position, and these men 
around you today stand with you as they did in 1869. They know that you will 
hand down to their children a clean record, and the flag with spotless honor, and 
that in your hands their families will be protected against mobbery and social- 
ism. I have the honor of presenting one who will address you on behalf 
of those who were the closest to you in 1869, and have been your friends ever 
since." Judge James W. Underbill spoke as follows; 

525 



"Major McKixley: I think it would perhaps be more suitable Lo all of ua 
if I say what I have to say publicly in as few words as possible. Memories of 
the past are always pleasant, especially to those who have reached my time of 
life. I feel proud that the Nation had in 1869 men who stood together and a 
party that was united to guard it against harm and to that condition of unrival- 
ed prosperity, which we enjoyed until 1892. We have traveled a level road ; 
some of us, I hope, have done good ; some of us have no time to do more good 
than we have done, while you have been climbing the ladder to preferment 
in a manner most gratifying to all your old friends, and are now almost at tlie 
topmost round. You have a big task before you; you have got to bring order 
out of chaos ; for disorganizers are scattered throughout the country and united 
against the Republican Party, but the men that met at Indianapolis, are men 
worthy to be mentioned and to be remembered. Please accept our warmest 
congratulations and may everything you desire be yours." (Applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" Judge Underhill AND Gentlemen : I have had a great many call.-* made 
upon me during the last three months, but, I assure you, none of them have 
given me greater pleasure, or have awakened more tender memories, than the 
call of my associates on the Republican ticket of 1869. That was twenty-seven 
years ago. It was the first time I had ever stood for public office, and I re- 
member with what unanimity I received the nomination of my party, and what 
encouragement I received from you, my associates, who were older, and more 
experienced in politics, than I was. I recall that campaign with sensations of 
the greatest pleasure. I do not know of any ticket that was ever more har- 
monious, and we won, as I remember. While this call has its pleasant feelings, it 
has also its sad memories. On that ticket there was a name dear to every Ohioan 
and American, Rutherford B. Hayes, then candidate for Governor, and that 
splendid citizen of Toledo, John C. Lee, candidate for Lieutenant Governor. 
On it, too, was that great jurist, whose memory is dear to all of us. Judge 
Luther Day', candidate for the Supreme Bench of Ohio. Then for Attorney 
General there was Francis B. Pond, whom we all knew well, and who is well 
remembered by Canton people. For Member of the Board of Public Works, 
there was that sturdy pioneer Republican, Richard R. Porter, of Canal 
Fulton. These have all gone to their reward. The only candidate on that 
State ticket now living is Sidney S. Warner, for Treasurer of State, one of the 
best and noblest of citizens of our State, now living at his old home in Welling- 
ton, Ohio. Benjamin F. Potts, whom we all remember well, was our candidate 
for State Senator. He too, is gone. He became Governor of the Territory of 
Montana. Our two candidates for Representative, Messrs. Bowman and John.>*on, 
are here, and that veteran of all of us, Juuge Underhill, is still with us, and we 
trust that many, many delightful years are yet before him. . When I first came 
to Canton, he was easily the leader of the Republican Party in Stark County. 
I remember the first political speech I ever made, Judge Underhill then stood 
beside me in the little village of New Berlin and encouraged me. That other 
good friend of us all, another of the pioneers, Ira M. Allen, was on the 
ticket for County Treasurer, with whom I think I traveled into every nook and 
corner of the county during that campaign. And there was our candidate 
for Sheriff, Mr. Stanley, always active. But of that county ticket, 
Daniel Dewalt, Wixliam Barber and Richard C. Lke are gone. AVe 
have all witnessed many changes in these twenty-seven years, but the pleasant- 

526 



est thing for me to recall now is, that I have had the unfaltering friendship 
of every one of my associates on that ticket, from that hour to this. ^ I thank 
you, gentlemen, from the bottom of my heart for this call and for the kind 
words you have seen fit to express. I wish for all of you lengthened years full 
of peace and happiness." (Applause.) 

CANTON BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE. 

No higher tribute w^as ever paid to mortal man than was the testimonial of 
love, esteem and confidence given Major McKinley, Wednesday evening, 
October 28th, by his neighbors and fellow citizens of Canton. The demonstra- 
tion was announced as a visit of the business and professional people of Canton 
to the Republican standard bearer. But it was only in the parade that the 
affair was thus limited. All Canton's population seemed to have turned out for 
some part in the aifair. Thousands stood on the sidewalks between the McKin- 
ley home and the Square, watching the parade form and move. Thousands 
preceded the line to the house. Thousands followed it. Old and young, men 
and women, boys and girls were there. Babies too young to walk were carried 
by fond parents. Men too old and feeble to march were hauled to the hou*e in 
carriages. Not only the McKinley lawn was filled but all the lawns adjoining 
as well as the streets far on either side. In the parade, which was a compact 
line almost as wide as the street, and so long that when the leaders were filing 
in on the McKinley lawn others were still forming at the Square, marched 
men from every branch of commei'ce and manufacture and of every profession, 
employers and employes, side by side. There w^as no effort at classification oi* 
organization, except that the druggists were well bunched and displayed a 
banner. The Grand Ai-my Band, Thayer's Band and Fiala's Military Band, with 
the various drum corps of the city, volunteered to furnish music and were 
assigned positions in the parade, and they made the welkin ring with patriotic 
airs. The venerable Alexander Hurford, a pioneer in Canton's commercial 
life, was the first speaker. He said : 

"My Fellow Citizens: I am here this evening to fulfill a duty assigned me 
by our honorable committee, and deeply feel the honor conferred. I am one of 
those unfortunate beings unaccustomed to speaking in public, and, well know- 
ing that the honorable gentleman whom I am about to present to you, is even 
more than able to remove any doubts in which any of you may be indulging. 
I trust that the Lord will be on our side on November third, 1896, and that this,^ 
now the most famous city in the United States, made so by our beloved and 
illustrious townsman, William McKinley (deafening applause) will give to him 
such a majority that each and every one of us will feel that old Canton has done 
herself proud. Fellow citizens, I have the pleasure and honor of present- 
ing to you one of our most respected citizens and fellow townsmen, who needs 
no introduction to a Canton audience, Mr. W. W. Clakk." Mr. Clark spoke 
in part as follows : 

"Major McKinley and My Fellow Citizens: I feel as if a great and last- 
ing honor has been done me in giving me the privilege of presenting to Major 
McKinley tlie business men of Canton. (Applause. ) But, my dear Major, I never 
before imagined that Canton had half as many business men as we see before 
us this evening. (Great laughter and cries of 'What's the matter with Canton,' 
and 'The woods are full of them.') I hope that these are all voters, even if they 
are not all engaged in mercantile pursuits. The business men of Canton have 
come to pay their respects to you as their fellow townsman and as the Itader of 

527 



the great Kepublican Party ir. this eaiiipaign. Tht'j- su-(= all proud of you, and liave 
good cause to be. (Applause.) They are proud of tlie jiarty you lead, and for 
gfx^d cause. The Republican Party for forty yeai-.s has stood as the emhcxlimeiit 
and personification of everything that in noble in this country. It cani?^ into 
being for an express purpose. It camp i;ito power in 1S61 , confronted by a threat 
war, by a bankrupt treasury, by disorganization throughout tlie whole of the 
land. It carried through that war with success, and this country came out re- 
baptized 'A Nation' ; and this Nation, controlled by this Kepublican Party for a 
quarter of a century, made strides in every line of advancement, not only in 
the accumulation of wealth, but in the mechanical arts, in the lines of benevol- 
ence, in all that stands for love to fellow man. (ipplauf^e.) In fact, tie ad- 
vancement of this country during that twenty-five years while the Republican 
Party controlled the destiny of the Nation, was such as to cause all other 
rations of the world to stand amazed. But we wanted a change. (A voice, 
*We got it,' followed by laughter and applause.) "We had been doing well, but 
we thought we could do better. The one thing then supposed to be needful was 
cheaper goods, and we got cheaper goods. In 1892 the government of this groat 
Nation passed into the control of the great 'Opposition Party.' Fj-ee trade was 
its battle cry. It was not unknown, it had been in power before, and the calam- 
ity was not fully apprehended. But our ship of state, with free trade as the 
goal, has floundered among the shoals, has beaten against the rocks and has had 
out the flag of distress all the time. Now, we are asked to intrust the destinies 
of this Nation to another party — not with tried and experienced leaders, not with 
a crew^ of seamen who have sailed this sea before, but an inexperienced captain 
and an untried crew ; a ship without a compass and without a chart, a ship with 
out a rudder. Can we expect this raw and color-blind captain to carry this great 
ship through an unknown sea and pass these breakers, when for four years 
the old and tried Democratic party with its own experienced leaders has 
floundered? But, fellow citizens, what is this all about? What are we con- 
tending for? (A voice, 'To elect McKixley,' followed by tremendous yells and 
waving of hats and flags.) I want to say in brief, that if we, as a Nation of 
voters, on the third day of November, elect Bryan as President of the United 
States, (cries of 'Hurrah for McKinley,' and great applause) and this country 
is placed on a silver basis, it will mean that every dollar today, except gold, 
used as currency in the United States, will depreciate fifty percent, because every 
dollar will be redeemable in silver and the paper money can never raise above 
the value of its redeemer. If a fifty cent dollar is the dollar of redemption and 
is not supported by gold, then every paper dollar descends to the same level 
with the same depreciated silver dollar. The gold would be withdrawn from 
circulation and we would be relegated to a paper currency and a silver currency 
worth fifty cents on a dollar, and the result would be we would have but one- 
third in actual purchasing power in currency of what we have today. But I am 
digressing. I don't want to make a speech but only to congratulate Major 
McKrNLEY over his brilliant prospects of election." (Great applause.) 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Mr. Clark and My Fellow Citizens: It would be a hard heart indeed 
that would be unmoved by this magnificent assemblage of neighbors and 
fellow townsmen, gathered here without regard to party, nationality or creed, 
to give expression to their good will for the great cause, for which I have been 
designated to stand. (Loud cheers.) The gi'eat demonstration of two weeks 

528 



ago by the workingmen of the city (a voice 'Tliey are here again, Major,' 
followed by laughter and applause) was one that filled me with the motu 
profound feelings of gratitude ; but to have this supplement to it, from the busi- 
ness men of the community — the men and the women (cries of 'That's right,' 
and 'Don't forget the women') is the crowning assurance of your confidence and 
regard (Cries of 'You bet,' and 'That's rigiit,' and continued cheering. v I have 
become so accustomed to receiving from your hands so many kindnesses for so 
many years that I was prepared for almost any demonstration, but this latest 
one fills me with gratitude and thankfulness quite inexpressible, and brings to 
me an honor the appreciation of which I could not conceal if I would, and would 
not conceal if I could. (Tremendous cheering and waving of flags and hats.) 
To have this great company of my fellow citizens with whom I have lived 
for now nearly a third of a century ; to have present the oldest and most 
venerated citizens of Canton — the men who helped to build it ; the oldest 
business men as well as the youngest ; the representatives of the largest 
enterprises as well as of the smallest ; those who employ, and those who are em- 
ployed, gather about my house tonight, fills me with a gratitude unspeak- 
able, and is an inspiration that will dwell with me as long as Hive. (Vociferous 
cheering and 'Hurrahs for McKinley.') There are honored veterans of twelve 
Presidential elections sitting on this platform, who come, without regard to 
party, to testify as to their love for the free institutions of our Republic and 
their desire that they 'shall not perish from the face of the earth.' (Cries of 
'You bet,' and 'You're right,' and great applause, and a voice 'We will elect you 
on the third of November, and don't you forget it.') We have had many great 
demonstrations in Canton this year, but such meetings have not been confined 
to this city, county or State, nor limited to any part of the country. Great 
meetings have been held everywhere from Maine to California because 
great issues are involved in the pending struggle. The people are aroused as 
never before, and I believe that the elections next Tuesday will show a much 
larger vote than was ever before polled in the history of our county, State and 
country. (Cries of 'You bet,' and 'You are right,' followed by continuous cheer- 
ing.) We polled twelve million votes four years ago, and I will be surprised if 
the vote of the Nation on the third of next month does not far exceed that. 
(Renewed applause and cries of 'It will,' 'It will.') In every voting precinct, 
each American elector feels that he has a grave duty resting upon him, 
and I don't believe that any one will willingly absent himself from the 
polls. (Cries of 'You bet they won't,' and a voice, 'I don't think they will go 
fishing, like Grover,' followed by much laughter and great applause.) They 
are not only going to vote, but they are going to vote right (cries of 'That's 
right,' and 'That's what we are,' and applause) as God gives them to see the 
right, independent of old party, or political relations. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' 
and immense cheering.) It is not a question of candidates, it is not a conten- 
tion for office, it is a contention for country; not a contention inspired by 
sectional considerations, but of dev^otion to the duty which affects and inspires 
the great heart of the American people. Not since the first shot went crashing 
against the walls of Sumter, rudely awakening the startled Nation to the realiza- 
tion that Civil War had commenced, have the masses of our fellow country- 
men ever been aroused as now. (Continued and enthusiastic cheering. ) With what 
shall always seem to me unaccountable rashness, it is pi'oposed at the end of 
a hundred and twenty years of a glorious National life — proposed in earnestness 
for the first time in our history, to cast reproach upon the honor of the Amer- 
ican name. (A voice, 'We will never consent' to it,' followed by great applause. ) 

529 



To give effect and force to that, not merely an act of State or Congressional legis- 
lation is sought, bad as that would be, but the American people are asked as they 
enter their booths next Tuesday to solemnly ratify a proposition that means Na- 
tional dishonor and repudiation. (Cries of Never,' 'Never.') I do not believe they 
will ever doit. (Renewed shoutsof 'Never, "Never.') The issue may be obscured 
as it will be, brilliant orators or talented writers may weave their most alluring 
sophistries, but the plain, bold proposition can not be hidden. The voters of the 
United States are asked to say by their ballots that they are willing that our Na- 
tional obligations shall be redeemed by the Government in money worth only 
about one-half as much as the Government received for them ; and that the pen- 
sioners of this Government — the men who were willing to give the best they had, 
the best that any man possesses — their own life's blood, shall have their pen- 
sions cut in two. (A voice 'Not this time,' and loud and continuous cheering.) 
The proposition is unworthy of American citizenship (cries of 'That's true' ) and is 
an insult to the integrity, the good faith, and the inspiring history of our great 
Republic. (Renewed cheers.) It should receive, and I believe it will receive, 
fitting rebuke from the ballots of a great majority of our fifteen millions of free 
men. (Cries of 'You are all right,' and 'That's good,' and vocifei-ous cheers.) It 
should be so overwhelmingly defeated that no National Convention of any great 
party will ever again dare to make so debasing a proposition in any important 
political campaign. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'Give 'em sixteen to one,' followed 
by continuous applause.) Why, if it prevails, how can the American name escape 
dishonor? What use to boast of the glories of the past, if we discredit them all 
in the living present? Shall we proceed by reason of them to cast reproach 
upon the honored name of the past by actual dishonesty now? No nation can 
by the fiction of the law justly absolve itself from any honorable obligation. 
No nation can by the wi-ongful exercise of power, contravene the eternal 
principles of truth and justice and not escape deserved and fearful retribution. 
(Renewed applause.) The American people will never take so rash and wicked 
a step as to invalidate and impair the value of their own Government's obliga- 
tions. They will never consent by popular vote, or otherwise, to the repudia- 
tion of one farthing of their National debt. They will never brook the thought 
of not looking the whole world in the face and challenging any nation to point 
to a more honorable or creditable record than ours. There can be no danger of 
American citizens having to go with bowed heads and shamed faces either at home 
or abroad. (Cries of 'That's true,' and 'That's right,' and applause.) But, my fel- 
low citizens, the arguments have been made ; the case is ready to go to the jury, 
and the jury is waiting impatiently to announce its verdict. (Tremendous ap- 
plause and waving of flags and hats.) And we, as Republicans, confidently and 
willingly submit our contention to the great tribunal of the American people — 
the highest and best hope in the world. (Renewed cheering.) They will, I am 
sure, give the most emphatic endorsement of the gi'eat principles of our Gov- 
ernment, and demand the continuance of our glorious institutions, unimpaired 
and unthreatened, which for more than .a century past have made this the most 
highly honored, as well as most prosperous Nation of the world. They will be 
true to their time honored traits as a mighty people. They will show tiie world 
this year that they respect law and order. (Cries of 'You bet,' and great ap- 
plause.) And that they believe in public peace and public tranquility, and not 
in disorder and chaos. They will teach the world that they will support the 
constituted authorities, created and sustained by their own free will. (Pro- 
longed cheers.) They will show their reverence for the courts of justice, their 
devotion to the constitutional doctrines of free government, and their love of 

530 



home and family, and education and morality. CR^newed cheering.) To what 
extent these matters are involved in this campaign, however some of them 
may be threatened by the leaders of an unworthy cause, and whenever and 
wherever the obligations of good citizenship may lead them, I am^^ confident 
that the American people can always be relied upon to do their whole duty 
bravely and well. (Cries of 'You are right, Major, we can,' followed by tre- 
mendous applause.) My fellow citizens, it luis been my good fortune to liave lived 
in this city and among you for nearly tliirty years. In lluit time I have seen this 
city increase from a population of less than eight thousand to one of nearly forty 
thousand, while in wealth, and in commercial and manufacturing importance it 
has made still more wonderful strides. No city was ever blessed w itli more 
enterprising, public-spirited, industrious and honorable business men than 
have lived in Canton during all these years. (Loud and continuous ap- 
plause.) Although in public life almost constantly because of your partiality, I 
have all the time taken great pride in Canton's advancement and growth, and I 
have always earnestly supported, with whatever poor ability I possess, that 
great economic policy, by which, not only Canton but Massillon, Alliance, and 
all other thriving, enterprising cities of the country have been steadily advanced. 
(Cries of 'Three cheers for McKinley and protection.') Protection has always 
seemed to me to be the true, patriotic American policy, and I want to see it 
restored in the legislative and administrative branches of the Government. 
(A voice 'And so do we,' followed by continued cheering.) Some of our 
political opponents have been denying that this question of the tariff is an issue 
in the present campaign. (A voice 'We'll fool them,' and great laughter and 
cheering.) They will not even tell us how they propose to raise the money 
with which to run this Government. (Cries of 'They don't know,' and 'They 
haven't got sense enought to know,' followed by much laughter and applause.) 
They will not discuss that at all, and yet they have declared in their platform 
that not a single dollar of money shall be borrowed, even to maintaining the 
credit and honor of the Government in time of peace. (Cries of 'Wiiat's the 
matter with the hole in the Treasury now?') But I am confident that they w ill 
discover that the tariff question is in the election returns of next Tuesday. 
(Vociferous cheering, lasting several moments.) After a protective tariff is re- 
stored. Canton, in common with all such thriving manufacturing cities, will take 
a fresh start and make still grander advancement — or such I hope and confidently 
believe will be the case. My fellow citizens, you have paid me many compli- 
ments and honors in the past, but never one that I appreciated more highly than 
this. I wish you all the greatest prosperity in your several branches of bus- 
iness. I wish for you all happiness and contentment in your homes, and bid j ou 
good night." (Three tremendous cheers.) 

PITTSBURG BUSINESS MEN. 

Thursday morning, October 29th, a party of business men and manu- 
facturers of Pittsburg called at the McKinley residence. They were shown 
into the house and greeted l)y ^Major McKinley very cordially. In belialf of 
the visitors, Colonel J. M. Shoemaker made a short informal address. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"Colonel SnoEM.\KEK AND Gentlemen: I very much appreciate this call, 
and it gives me great encouragement to have assurances of your confidence 
and good will. It is a good omen to the country when its business men 

531 



become actively concerned in the rightful settlennMit of public questions; and 
it is a glorious omen to us all tluit. not only the business men, but the working- 
men of the country are in harmony and coming together for the triumph of 
correct principles, sound money and a tariff tiuit will give us sufficient money to 
run the Government besides encouraging home industries and labor. As you say, 
the campaign is a most vital one. It is vital to every American interest, as I 
view it. It is a proud post of honov that the Republican Party occupies 
today. No party ever occupied a prouder or more advanced position, rep- 
resenting so much that is good and valuable in government in which so many 
of our vast industries are involved. I trust that Tuesday next will find that 
the American people, by a large majority, are standing for country and the 
country's honor. I thank you for this call." (Applause.) 



nORE ENTHUSIASTIC BUCKEYES. 

The delegations fi-om Hancock and Seneca counties, announced for October 
29th, came in one party and numbered about 700 people. They arrived on a 
special train via the Cleveland Terminal and Valley road, and headed by the 
Findlay Band, Canton Troop and Citizen's Reception Committee, marched 
directly to the ^IcKinley home. Introductory addresses were made by Senator 
T. H. McCoNicA, of Findlay, and W. A. Dickey, of Tiffin. 



Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: For more than twenty years I have journeyed 
through my native State, speaking to the people upon public questions, so that 
I have become personally acquainted with a large part of the population of 
Ohio. (Laughter and applause.) I see in this audience many faces that I 
have often met and addressed before— b(jth from the county of Hancock and 
the county of Seneca ; for, as Senator McCoxic.v has told you, for more than ten 
years I have visited his county, and quite as often, I believe, visited the other 
county that is represented in this yard today. I bid you all welcome to my 
city and home. We have indeed, a proud heritage. We can justly glory in 
the splendid achievements of our own State and the grander achievements of 
our country. We have been blessed as no other people in the world have been 
blessed. I am glad to meet this representative body, coming from all callings, 
occupations and professions, from these two counties, and I am especially glad 
to meet the good women, who honor me with their presence. (Great applause.) 
No cause can ever go very far wrong, if it has tiie approval of those who preside 
over the American home (renewed applause) and we would all of us get on 
better, both in public and private affairs, if we talked them over more with our 
wives, mothers and sisters, and took them into our confidence. (Cries of 
'Good,' 'Good,' and applause.) I am glad to know that the women of the 
country are as deeply interested as the men in the rightful settlement of the 
public questions that are upon us. What is all this contention about? What 
does it mean that from one end of this country to the other, in every State and 
Territory of the American Union, there are assembled today millions of men 
discussing questions of great National imiKn-t? It is a question as to whether 



we are to continue doing business with good money, or commence doing it with 
poor money. (Cries of 'We want good money every time,' followed by loud 
and continuous cheering.) This is the plain, simple question, touching the 
great problems of finance. We have today in this country money as good as 
can be found anywhere in the w^orld. (Cries of 'Yes,' "Yes,' and 'That's right.') 
Every dollar of it is as good as gold and passes current everywhere. It is now 
proposed that we shall change this splendid financial system and enter upon a 
program of an irredeemable paper dollar, or a debased silver dollar. (Cries of 
'Never,' 'Never.') It seems to me that the naked statement of the proposition 
should bring its instant condemnation. If there is anything that the working- 
man wants, if there is anything that the merchant w'ants, or that the farmer 
w-ants, that shall be stable, fixed and unvarying in value, it is the money he 
takes in exchange for his labor or products. (Great applause and cries 
of 'That's right.') As I said a moment ago, this is the sort of money 
we have now, and is the sort that next Tuesday we mean to 
decree shall be continued. (Loud and ccntinuous chearing.) What is 
the other question, my fellow citizens? The other question is one of taxation. 
It takes money to run the Govermnent, and our political opponents say they 
won't borrow any money to do it, but they do not tell us how they will run it. 
(A voice, 'They don't know^' and much laughter and applause.) They will not 
discuss the tariff at all. (A voice, 'They're afraid of it,' and renewed laughter 
and cheering.) They say it is not in the campaign. I can imagine nothing 
more important than a revenue system that will provide money enough to run 
the Government. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'That's good.') We haven't had 
enough money to run this Government for the past three years (cries of 'No, 
'No,' 'We haven't,' and applause) under a false system of political economy. 
So the question is, how shall we raise that money? (A voice, 'Vote for Mc- 
KixLEY,' followed by great laughter and continued cheering.) Do you want to 
raise it by direct taxation? (Cries of 'No,' 'No.' ) By taxing the property and the 
lands or the incomes and the wages of the people? ('Cries of 'No,' 'No.') Well 
then, the other way to raise it is by taxing the products that come here from 
Europe;in and other foreign countries in competition with American products. 
(Cries of 'That's right,' and tremendoas cheering.) That's the way to raise it; 
its the old-fashioned American way of raising it. (Cries of 'Yes,' 'Yes,' and 
'You're right.') This is the way Washingtox pointed out as the way to raise the 
money to run this Government. When we have agreed upon the tariff as the 
way to do it, then I would so adjust the tariff upon foreign products that com- 
pete with American products, the products of our factories and farms, so as to 
give full, round, adequate protection to every American producer. (Loud and 
continuous applause.) This is the other contention upon which we must speak 
next Tuesday. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'We'll vote the right way.') Then 
there's another contention ; we propose to have no stain of repudiation cast upon 
the American name. (Loud shouts of 'No,' 'Never.') And we propose to stand 
by law and order and the constituted authorities of the State and Nation. (Re- 
new-ed cheering and cries of 'You are right.') We propose, moreover, that we 
will have no other flag in the United States than the glorious old Stars and 
Stripes. (Vociferous cheers.) I thank you for this call from the bottom of my 
heart. Take back my message of good will and regard to your friends at home, 
and I beg the spokesman from Seneca county, especially, to carry back to that 
venerable old lady, the widow of that distinguished General, William H. Gib- 
son, whom we all loved so much, and who loved his country so much, the best 
and warmest regards both of Mrs. McKinl;.y and myself." (Three cheers.) 

533 



FROn DEriOCRATIC ASHLAND. 

A delegRtion numbering over 300 people came from Asliland county, Oliio, 
Thursday afternoon, October 29th, \Yith greetings and assurances of support 
and coming victory to Major McKinley. The party vv^as composed of farmers, 
laboring men, business men, professional men and a number of old veterans. 
They were introduced by Mr. Thomas Carey, of Perrysville, who said in a very 
few words that they had come to bring greetings to the Republican standard 
bearer, bid him godspeed, and to express their earnest desire for his election. 

flajor ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens : I can do little more than simply make acknowledg- 
ment of your gracious call and thank you for the assurances which your spokes- 
man has brought me of youi* zeal in the cause for which I have been, for the mo- 
ment designated to stand. I am glad to meet all from the farms and factories. 
You are alike interested in the questions of the pending campaign, and all, in 
my judgment, have already made up their minds how they are going to vote. 
(Cheers and cries of 'Yes, for McKinley.') Indeed, I think the American peo- 
ple were never more in readiness to vote than at this moment, and I believe 
that they intend to vote on the side, which, in their consciences, they believe 
will bring to the Nation the greatest honor and prosperity. (Loud cheers.) It 
is my opinion that the American people will never, by their votes, deliberately 
put a stain upon the honor of the country or debase the money with which the 
peo])le do their business. We want good money, good times, good markets and 
permanent prosperity, then we will proceed on that magnificent march of 
progress, which for the last one hundred and twenty years has been the marvel 
of the civilized world. I thank you, one and all, and bid you good afternoon." 
(Loud che'^rs.) /• 

SIX OHIO COUNTIES. 

Six Ohio counties were represented in one of the audiences addressed by 
Major McKinley, Thursday afternoon, October 29th. The party, numbering 
about six hundred people, was headed by the Barracks Band, of Columbus, and 
included the Kurtz Club, of Columbus, and miners, farmers, mechanics and 
citizens in general from Yinton, Hocking, Athens, Jackson and Fairfield 
counties of the Hocking Yalley, and from Huron in the Reserve. Judge L. 
D. Hagerty introduced the club, pledging 3,000 Republican plurality in the 
city of Columbus. Dr. C. B. Tay'lok, of McAi-thur, spoke for Vinton, Hon. F. 
S. PuRCELL, of Logan, for Hocking, George Mordorf, of Wakeraini for Huron, 
and W, S. Wincook, of Lancaster, for Fairfield county. ♦ 

riajor McKinley's Response. 

"My- Fellow Citizens: I bid hearty and sincere welcome to all my follow 
citizens of Ohio here assembled in my city and at my home. I am more tiian 
honored that the Kurtz Republican Club, of Columbus, sliould pay me the com- 
pliment of this call. I do not foVget that tiie gentleman wliose name you bear, is 
now at the head of the Republican organization inOhio,fighting the battles of the 
State and assisting in a glorious triumpli in November. I beg you will convey to 
him assurances of good will and appreciation for the splendid services performed 
in behalf of Stale and country. I am glad, too, to welcome my fellow citizens of tho 

53i 



Hocking Valley, from the counties of Fairfield, Athens, Hocking, Vinton and 
Jackson, who have done nie the honor to travel so great a distance to give as- 
burances of their hearty and unfaltering support. I welcome, also, my fellow 
citizens of Huron County, who are in this assemblage. (Applause.) You are 
all here because there is a common sentiment in your hearts, a sentiment for 
themaintenanceof sound money, of publichonorand the supremacy of law. You 
come because you are personally and deeply interested in the campaign now 
almost at its close. Tliis is not a year of mere partisanship ; it is not a contest — 
in the old sen^e of the term, between tlie Republican and Democratic parties. 
This is a year when patrotic men of all parties are banded together for the 
common weal. This is the year when men have broken away from their party 
organizations because they believe that otherwise thei'e lurks danger and peril to 
the country they love so much. Next Tuesday will be the battle of the ballots. Next 
Tuesday, seventy millions of people, through their legal electors, will determine 
the National policy for the next four years to come. What will it be? Will it 
be for honest money? (Loud cries of ' Yovi bet,' and cheers.) Will it be for public 
honor? (Loud cries of 'Yes, sir,' and renewed cheers. ) Will it be for the restora- 
tion of that splendid tariff policy under which for a third of a century we made 
the mightiest progress of any nation in human history? (Cries of 'Yes,' '.Yes,' and 
loud cheering.) You are here from the mines, shops and farms, and all you 
want is that we should adopt that policy that will give the widest opportunity 
for the employment of labor ; that is all we want, a policy that will enable us 
to do our work at home with our own labor rather than abroad by the labor of 
other countries. (Cheers.) A policy that protects every American interest, 
whether of farm, factory or mine; in a word, we want to get back to that 
splendid prosperity of 1892 from which we ran away and which we overturned 
by our votes four years ago. (Applause.) I am glad to be-assured that in old 
Franklin County, the capital city of the State will give the splendid Republican 
cause this year the unprecedented majority of three thousand. (Cheers.) I 
am glad to be assured, also, that the old capital district, which was two years 
ago put into the Republican column, will this year return to Congress that 
splendid representative American, Hon. Davii> K. Watson, who richly deserves 
such endorsement at your hands. (Loud chrn-s.) I welcome you all to my 
home and wish you a safe return to yours, and I hope that the time is not far 
distant when every man in this country, who wants work, shall have an oppor- 
tunity to do it, and that cheer, contentment and happiness will drive out the 
despair that has settled upon so many American homes." (Loud cheers.) 

A THOROUGHLY REPRESENTATIVE CROWD. 

The last auflience addressed on tlie McKinley lawn, on October 29th, was com- 
posed of delegations from DeKalb and other counties of Northeastern Indiana, 
and Williams and Fulton counties, Ohio. The whole crowd numbered about 
500 people, and they ai-rived over the Cleveland, Canton and Southern road 
shortly after three o'clock. The Melroy Band, of Butler, Indiana, led the 
parade to the McKinley home. J. C. Vexier, of Butler, spoke for Indiana, 
and J. B, Templeton, of Swanton, spoke on behalf of the Ohioans. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizexs : Your call upon me this afternoon, from two of the 
great States of the American Union, is most gracioug and gratifying. We are foi*- 
tunate this year that our contention is of that character that its discussion is suit- 

535 



able to any county of any State of the Nation. (Applause.) What isgotxl forono 
part of tiie United States is good for another ; what is good for Ohio is good for 
Indiana, and what is good for the North is good for the South. I am glad to 
note the deep interest that the pettple of the country are taking in the pending 
election, now but a few days off. I was struck by an expression of one of your 
spokesmen, that you were ready for the contest. I believe all the peoph\ every- 
where beneath our flag, are ready for the contest. (Cries of 'You bet,' and. 
'You're right.' and great applause. ) I believe there has been no time in our history 
since the war, that the people were so anxious and impatient to vote, and so 
decided in their convictions as to the character of their votes, as they are this 
year 1896. I believe, too, that on the third day of November the verdict of the 
American people will be for sound money, public faith, public morals and pro- 
tection and reciprocity. (Loud and continuous cheering.) It seems almost 
incomprehensible that the proposition which comes from a certain quarter, to 
debase the standard of value in this country and degrade the currency with 
which we are doing our business — it seems almost incomprehensible, I say, that 
it should have lodgment in the heart of any American. (Applause.) If there 
is any one thing in government that should be fixed, and as stable, and 
unvarying in value as the wit of man can make it, it is the currency that meas- 
ures the exchange of the people, and which is given for their products and their 
labor. (Cries of 'That's right,' and applause.) We don't want any poor money 
in the United States. (Cries of 'No,' 'No,' 'You're right w- don't.) The experi- 
ence of mankind has been that whenever poor money has been used the loss has 
fallen upon the poorer people of the country. (Cries of 'Every time,' and 
'You're right,' and continuous applause.) If the white bearded men of this audi- 
ence will allow their memories to sweep back, they will recall that in the days 
before the war, when we had State bank currency, that, wiienever the farmer 
sold his wiieat at the market town taking the bank notes that were good at 
that hour, the next day he discovered that the bank was broken and the value 
of his wheat therefore was taken from him. (Great applause.) We don't want any 
such money as that or anything approaching it. (Cries of 'No,' 'No,' and 'You are 
right.') W^e want what we have now, the best money in the world. Every 
dollar of it as good as gold. Every dollar as good as the best money in the civilized 
nations. (A voice, 'We want it w^orth a hundred cents on the dollar,' and ap- 
plause. ) A dollar that is not only good in one State, but good in every State ; not 
only good in all the States , but good in all the great nations of the world ; passing 
current always for its face value. There is nothing that cheats labor, or the farm- 
er, the producer, or laboring man, like an unstable and fluctuating currency. 
(Renewed cheering.) We want our money to be as sound as our Government, 
(cries of 'That's right' and renewed applause)— and there is no government in 
the world any sounder than ours. (Great applause.) Then, my fellow citizens, 
we want a return to that American policy, inaugurated at the very beginning of 
the Government by the first President of the United States and by the first Con- 
gress that assembled under the Constitution; the American policy that will 
raise enough money to run the Government by placing a tarifl upon imports; 
and then, when we are levying those tarififs, we will so adjust them as to protect 
the American workshop, the American market, and the American people. 
(Continuous cheering.) We want to get away from the debt-making, bond- 
increasing policy under which we have been suffering for the last three years 
and a half. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'We'll do it. too. Major'.) And we want 
to get on a basis that will enable the Government to pay as it goes. (Cries of 
^That's good,' and 'Right you are.') Then we want to put the people on the 

536 



same basis, for they have not been upon it for the last three and a half years- 
(Laughter and applause.) The policy we have had for almost four years has not 
only depleted the public treasury, but the savings, earnings and incomes of the 
people as well. We can make this great Government just what we want it. We 
have that power ourselves. (A voice, 'We're going to make it right,' and 
great applause.) The ballot that you next Tuesday use and put into the box 
(a voice, 'We will put it in for McKinley,' followed by continuous laughter 
and applause) must express the will of the freemen of the United States, and 
that, I am sure, will be on the side of good money, protection, reciprocity, the 
supremacy of law, and in opposition to riots and to public disorder. I believe the 
voices of Indiana and of Ohio will both be in favor of maintaining the Federal 
Judiciary of the country, always incorruptible and always in time of trouble our 
safeguard and our mainstay— the bulwark of our liberties. (Tremendous 
cheering.) I thank you for this call and bid you carryback for me, to the 
friends you have left at home, my best wishes and kindest regards. I thank 
you and bid you good afternoon." (One of the spokesmen for the delegation, 
Mr. Yexier, then proposed three cheers for "McKinley and Victory," which 
were given most enthusiastically.) 

ADDRESSES TO COLORED MEN. 

lion. CuAUNCEY ]M. Depew was a guest of Major McKinley on the afternoon 
of Friday, October 30th. He was making a speaking tour of the State and 
stopped for a social call. After reaching Springfield Mr. Depew made speeches 
from his car at varipus points between that city and Cincinnati. While at the 
McKinley home a delegation of colored men, the "Original McKinley Club" 
of Cleveland, called and were introduced by Mr. J. E. Benson. After a brief 
address to them, Major McKinley introduced Mr. Depew to the club and to the 
many Cantonians who had collected in the yard. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

" Mr. Benson and My Fellow Citizens : I bid you warm welcome to my city 
and home, and feel that I am honored to have you give my name to your club. 
(Applause. ) I have been glad to note in this political campaign that the colored 
men in every section of the United States have demonstrated their zeal for the 
ti-iumph of Republican principles. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and renewed ap- 
plause.) You, in common with aU yoar fellow citizens, believe in liberty, and 
you believe that liberty should be regulated by Jaw. You believe that this 
country should have as the medium of exchange for doijig its business, doUai-s 
that are good, not only in the United States, but recognized as good in every 
commercial center of the world. (Applause. ) You believe also, that the courts 
of this country, which are our safeguards in every time of peril, should be sus- 
tained in their dignity and incorruptibility. I am glad to count you, and those 
whom you represent, as allies in this great contest for good currency, public 
honor, and general prosperity. I know you will be glad to hear from a distin- 
guished citizen of another State, one of the best, known men in the United 
btates, or in the world, Hon. Chauncey M. Depew." (Tremendous applause.) 

Address of Dr. Chauncey M. Depew. 

" Fellow Citizens : I came here to pay my respects to Governor McKinley, 
and not to make a speech. My speech making does not begin in Ohio until 

537 



tomorrow. (Laughter and applause.) I feel that I ought not to make any 
speeches in Ohio any way, and the reason is that I want to have the State of 
New York give a larger majority in proportion to its population than any State 
in the Union. (A voice, 'You can't beat Ohio,' followed by tremendous la;ighter 
and continued cheering.) And if by any chance my coming here sliould lead to 
Ohio beating us, I don't know whether I could live again in New York or not. 
(Much laughter and applause.) Anyway I can move to Oliio. (Renewed laugh- 
ter and cheering.) It affords me very great pleasure on arriving here at this 
spot, which will be one of the historic places of the country for all the future of 
our history (great cheering) to find the first delegation of those tliousands of 
delegations of which we read in New York, to be a delegation of colored 
men. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and applause.) And I say that for this reason: 
it has pleased the Popocratic party, or else rather, the Popocratic leaders, to 
place this campaign upon a plane which it never before has been put in this 
country. They are trying to array one class against another class — as if tliere 
were classes in this country, or permanent classes. They are trying to array the 
employed against their employers, and to array the man who has not pi"osi)ered 
against the man who has prospered a little more than he, as if it were tlip spirit 
of American liberty that a man should not rise from his condition to a better 
one, where all are equal before the law. If any one has a right to complain and 
the right to be an anarchist and a socialist, it is the colored man. It is only one 
generation since he came from slavery to a freeman's estate — but no one ever sawa 
Negro socialist or a Negro anarchist. (Loud and continuous ehoering. ) The 
colored people of the United States accept the Emancipation Proclamation of 
Abr.ham LiNcoLjfas it was given to the world. They accept American citizen- 
ship as it came from the pen of the great liberator and that great American cit- 
izen, that all men are created equal with one another and with inalineable 
rights ; that no man is better than another man before the law but are all equal. 
And the rest is American opportunity under American liberty. (Continuous 
cheering.) And so it is that the colored men of this country, this generation, 
which has gone to the schools and received American education and is enjoying 
American opportunity, are all for McKinley, prosperity and liberty." (Three 
tremendous cheers were given for Mr. Depew and then three cheers for Major 
McKinley. ) 

REPRESENTATIVE COLLEGE MEN. 

The college boys, who arrived on the various regular trains during Friday,- 
October 30th, organized a parade soon after two o'clock in the aftei-noon, and 
headed by the Grand Army Band marched to the McKinley home, where the 
Republican standard bearer was greeted with distinctive "yells" of the students 
of many institutions of learning. Case School of Applied Sciences of Cleveland 
was represented by a good sized delegation. The other schools were represent- 
ed by small parties. According to Mr. M. J. Hennixg, of Chicago, who was promi- 
nent in arranging the demonstration, thirty-three colleges were represented. 
Mr. William Burns Wolfpe, of Harvard, editor of the College Repub- 
lican, spoke in their behalf. Major McKinley addressed the students most earn- 
estly and at considerable length, when he had concluded Dr. Chauncey M. 
Depew was introduced. 



638 



Major ricKinley's Response. 

•'Gentlemen of the Eepublican College Clubs: You have done me 
great honor in journeying so fai* and at so great a sacrifice of time to bring 
your assurances of good will and cordial support. It is a great gain for any 
cause to have enlisted in it the educated men of the country, and I am glad to be 
assured by your spokesman that in the contest of this year, in which the Nation's 
honor and the public integrity are involved, the college men not only of the 
East, but of the West, teachers and pupils alike, 'are with us in heart and pur- 
pose. (Loud cheers.) I know, young gentlemen, you are earnest Eepublicans, 
and appreciate most highly your support of the Eepublican cause. If you were 
not Eepublicans from conviction, however, and were guided alone by enthu- 
siastic ardor, I would say to you in the words of Webster: 'Study the Consti- 
tution of the United States thoroughly ; contrast its teachings with the doc- 
trines of the political parties of tlie day, and vote with the one you then believe 
will do the most for your country.' (Applause.) Tlie Eepublican Party can 
well afford to submit to that test ; it never has shrunk from the severest test of 
the past, and has never suffered thereby. But in the alignment of parties 
today, and in the vital questions at issue between them, it especially and cheer- 
fully invites comparison and contrast. It has no aim but the public good and 
the honor of the American name and confidently submits its contention not to a 
class or a section, but to the whole American people. Daniel Webster always 
stood for America, and I (?an recall no grander words in any oration than the 
ringing, truthful, and touching sentences in which, after paying his own 
State grand and well deserved tribute, he, in terms of e^ual endearment, 
claimed Wasiiixgton, Henry, Marshall, Jefferson, Madison, and other dis- 
tinguished Southerners, as just as much his countrymen as any of the noble 
patriots of New England. He expressed in that wonderful speech the true 
sentiment of this campaign, the dominant, moving force of the present National 
contest. This is the spirit tliat should animate every young man in the country 
in college and out, everywhere today — a National spirit — a broad and compre- 
hensive patriotism, a genuine Americanism. (Applause.) If I could give the 
young men of the United States a message that I would have them hear and 
heed it would be : Stand up for America ; devote your life to its service ; love 
your own homes and prove as worthy of our cherished free institu- 
tions as tliey are worthy of your allegience and service. (Applause.) 
Let not the high standard of National honor, raised by the fathers, be lowered 
by their sons. Let learning, liberty and law be exalted and enthroned. (Loud 
applause.) You come from the great educational institutimis of the land and, 
I dare say, love to contemplate with me their great and increasing importance. 
Each is for his own college, but proud of all, and there are none but would give 
honor to the great public school system of the country. Our common schools are 
in many respects the best in the world and may be said to surpass the high stand- 
ards of other Nations in almost every particular. The wonderful provisions 
made by the people of this country for public education tells the story of the 
advantages of the Eepublic better than any words of mine. We expended for 
the education of the youth of the country in our public schools, $63,000,000 in 
1870; $78,000,000 in 1880, and $140,000,000 in 1890— an average increase of nearly 
$4,000,000 per annum. Three-fourths of this expenditure was for salaries of 
teachers and every year we are getting on the whole better instructors and 
broader instruction. The value of public school property in this country 
in 1870, was $i 30,000,000; in 1S80, $509,(X><J,000; and in 1890, $342,000,0>>0 

539 



—an average annual increase of $10,000,000 for the whole period. In addition to 
this gi-eat outlay by the Xnlion, America has just reason to be proud of the 
private benefactions which cur pliilanthropic citizens are constantly making to 
our colleges and universities. They have fallen off, it is true, in the last three 
years, and they will be still more reduced, if ever we are so unwise as to enter 
upon the project of free silver, as now proposed, or any other scheme of false 
finance. In the foundation of public libraries and in aid of our higher schools 
the amount of these gifts from 1871 to 1891, a period of twenty years, exceeded 
$80,000,000, or more than .$4,000,000 a year. We have in the United States in 
adiiition to our public .schools more than 400 universities and colleges with 8 COO 
instructors, 46,000 students, and property valued at nearly .$150,000,000 and 
libraries containing more that 4,000,000 volumes. What has been the result of 
this unparalleled expenditure and munificence? Areourschoolsworth what they 
cost? Yes, I answer, all that and infinitely more. They are objects of patriotic 
pride and of solicitude to us all. We behold most satisfactory progi-ess in the 
public schools, whose annual enrollment of pupils has now reached more than 
13,000,000, or twenty-three per cent of the entire population, a greater percentage 
than that of any other nation in the world. The i)ublic was never more ready to 
pour out its treasures in support of our schools than now. We spend for 
education ]ier capita more than any other nation of the world. Our per capita 
is nearly twice that of Great Britain ; three times that of France, and ten times 
that of Italy. Our census returns show the glorious fact in our civilization that 
eighty-seven per cent of our total population over ten years of age can read and 
write. (Loud cheers.) What a splendid citizenship this will make and iiow 
much it means for the future of our country ! These are some of the results of 
the matchless system of government under which we live, and which must, in 
future years, be turned over to your keeping. How will you guard it ? 
Sacredly, I am sure, faithfully and honorably. I am certain you will not begin 
the exercise of your citizen sovereignty by voting to violate public honor or by 
substituting for the glorious old Stars and Stripes any other flag. (Loud 
applause.) In view of these facts I believe it can be truthfully said that in the 
advancement of the United States, no other nation can equal its progress in 
education, invention, science, and the useful arts, or in the grandeur of its 
charitable work. (Loud cheers.) Its progress has not only been of incalculable 
benefit to our people, but rich in benefits to the world, and if we consider that 
the poineer college in the country is not yet 360 years old, we may indeed con- 
gratulate ourselves on the record made. Young gentlemen, the country has 
need of patriots and statesmen now, and will need them in its future years. I 
beg you to bear in mind always that the contests, which you must meet, are 
largely intellectual and moral, not material, and that no matter how limited 
your resources financially, you have just as good a chance to win as anybody 
else if you apply yourselves properly. There is the test of true American man- 
hood. Do your duty manfully, cheerfully, and hopefully and do it at all 
hazards, and, whatever your embarrassments, you are bound to win. The youth 
of no other land are so blessed as ours. Give your country your unswerving 
allegiance and loyalty. Give it your hearty support and unselfish love. Give 
it your best thoughts, acts and devotion. There never was a country that exacts 
so little from its citizens, and there never was a country that was entitled to so 
much and which gave its citizens so much, as ours. (Applause.) In the pending 
campaign, some men have actually advocated the splitting of our great National 
family into distinct divisions, or classes, as they are pleased to call them. They 
have said to the working people of the factories, mines and mills, 'You go off 

540 



Into one crowd,' and they have said to the farmers, gardeners, dairymen, and 
other agriculturists, 'You go off into another crowd.' But the wool growers they 
have left out altogether (loud laughter) as the wool growers fully appreciate. 
Then they have turned to professional and college men, merchants and manu- 
facturers and to railroad presidents (turning to Dk. Depew amidst loud laughter) 
and said, 'You will not follow us, so of course you must stay together.' (Re- 
newed laughter. ) There would be something comical about all this travesty of 
common sense, if it were not for the fact — the serious fact they present, of ar- 
raying the bitterest feeling of each community ; the arraying of labor against 
capital ; of the poor, or less fortunate against the rich or more fortunate ; the 
creation for the first time in our history, of harmful and destructive social 
divisions. If the teachings of these men were followed to their logical conclus- 
ions they would threaten tlie very foundations of the Government. But they 
are all wrong, fundamentally, cruelly wrong; for there never was a time and 
never will be, or can be a time when the interests of labor and capital were not 
identical and mutually beneficial. (Loud applause.) Young men of the col- 
leges, I adjure you, denounce these things whenever you encounter them. 
Speak against them and vote against them ; teach your children to abhor 
them; for they are opposed to American National institutions. This glor- 
ious Eepublic is full of the splendid examples of the poor young man, who 

Has made, by force his merit knowu 

And lived to clutch the golden keys, 
That molds a mighty State's decrees, 

And shapes the whispers of the throne. 

It gave us Andrew Jackson, a young hero of the Revolution, and Abraham 
Lincoln, the Martyr to Liberty. Their names will be repeated with honor so 
long as the history of the United States is read. One the son of a poor widow, 
the other born in poverty and obscurity and both without the advantages of 
early education. Each young man in the hearing of my voice has as good a 
chance in life today under our free institutions — aye, a better chance, than 
either of these great men had at his age, and yet, there are men so reckless, 
and wanton, as to say that the children of the poor have no opportunity to rise. 
Out upon such a gospel ! It is opposed to every National instinct ; it is utterly 
unworthy of any self-vespecting American citizen. (Loud cheers.) Teach 
rather the doctrine of Jefferson : 'The cement of the Union is in the heart- 
blood of every American.' It belongs to its all, it is ours to keep for all time, 
and to enjoy ; and it gives every man, woman and child under the flag an equal 
opportunity in the battle of life. Young men, I congratulate you upon your 
splendid opportunities secured by our American civilization, and by virtue of 
our free institutions, and I assure you that with honesty and industry, pure 
lives and noble aspirations, you will make names for yourselves, and add glory 
to the Republic. Guard your own lives from impure thoughts, or unworthy 
ambitions, and you will be the better equipped for the sacred trust, which, in a 
few years will be imposed upon you. I thank you for this call. It now gives me 
extreme pleasure to give you what I know will be a most agreeable surprise, 
the opportunity to listen to the Hon. Chauncey M. Depew of New York." (Loud 
and prolonged cheers.) 

HON. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW'S SPEECH. 

"Well boys (loud laughter) some of you and I have met before. (Renewed 
laughter.) I have been in this college business for a number of years. Ever 
since I graduated from one of the big colleges :^t a period that antedates much 

541 



of our present history. (Laughter.) A candidate for the Presidency, in a mo- 
ment of irritation and nervous prostration, gave voice to a sentiment for which 
I know he afterwards felt great regret. He said that the college boys of tho 
country were sent to attend college with the purpose that they might spend the 
ill-gotten gains of their fathers. (Loud laughter.) Now, when I was in college 
I had to hustle to get anything to spend (renewed laughter) and judging from 
the anxiety that college men have shown when they are going to attend the 
meeting of their College League to secure passes from me over the railroad to 
the place where they are going (laughter), I take it the father either doesn't 
want him to go, or that the old man keeps his pocket buttoned up pretty tight- 
ly. (Loud laughter.) lam very familiar with the conditions of the under- 
gi-aduate in the various colleges of the United States and especially at Yale, 
■where I have been one of the coi-poration for a great many years. Eight-tenths 
of the students of all the great colleges are very familiar with the fact that it 
is a sacrifice on the part of their fathers and mothers, a distinct sacrifice of 
some of the comforts of their own lives, to send their boys to these colleges. (Cries 
of 'You are right,' and cheers.) If there is anybody in the world who ought to 
study these great questions, it is the undergraduates in the various colleges of 
the United States. The educated man goes out of the college to become a 
lawyer, a doctor, minister, journalist or business man, and is recognized in the 
community in which he settles as a trained mind and as having had a college 
education which fits him to be an authority on these great questions. Some- 
time ago, I spoke to a Western university and I supposed that I would have to 
make a political speech, but I was informed that politics must not be introduc- 
ed and that I was expected to deliver a literary oration. Now, when I am out 
on the stump (laughter) and chock full and running at the mouth with the 
political questions of the day, I do not care much about Greece and Rome. 
(Loud laughter.) I do not carry any literature, or art, or Gothic architecture, 
up my sleeve (renewed laughter) and if I should start to describe the course of 
the River Jordan or the journey of the Children of Israel across the Red Sea, 
before I got through I should have the Democratic party in Pharaoh's chariot. 
(Loud laughter and cheers.) That is an intellectual failing of mine. So, to be 
absolutely non-partisan, I selected for my subject 'Money and the standard of 
values.' (Laughter.) Now, if there is one subject in the world which sliould li 
non-partisan and non-political, it is the standard of value of a commercial peo]ile. 
The moment you question that, you question the integrity and prosperity of 
that commercial people, and if there is a chair of political economy in any 
college in the United States that does not teach the boys in that college what a 
standard of value means and what commercial honesty means, I say, that it is 
no place in which the boys of the country ought to be educated. (Loud cheers.) 
I lived during the exciting years of the war, and I remember that tlie question 
contended then was whether this Republic should live or die and whether a 
nation had the righs to preserve its own life. If anybody should get up on a 
college platform now and question these things, I venture to Say he would not 
stay there long, for the whole country would disappi-oveof what hesaicL (Loud 
cheers.) Y'ou will find students and pi-ofessors in every college of this country, 
talking of these questions and standing up for the preservation of National 
honor and stating that these questions are questions which our boys should be 
taught. (Cheers.) We have passed, in our history, through several periods 
which marked eras, and each one of those eras had a representative man who 
received the support of the colleges and pulpits. The first who received the 
support of the colleges and pulpits was George Washin'gton. The next who 

542 



received their support, and that support almost unanimously, was ABRAHAif 
Lincoln. There is one who is standing now for the preservation of this Union 
and the country's honor and who will receive the unanimous support of the 
colleges and pulpits, of the intelligence and conscience of the country — William 
MoKiNLEY. (Loud applause.) It is fortunate that we will have in the AVhite 
House, after Marcli 4th, next, an experienced statesman who can grasp these 
political questions, which are the most serious we have had to consider since 
the Civil War, and bring to them his ripe judgment and statesmanship. And, 
while we are speaking on the subject of American opijortunity, as he has spoken 
so eloquently and giving the great examples, which he has cited, of men who 
have iUustrated the American opportunity to rise from the ranks, let me add 
that there has risen from the ranks in the State of Ohio, in the last thirty-five 
years, a boy, who tried to get into college by teaching school, but when the 
first gun was fired at Sumter, he was there. He had no opportunities other 
than what American liberty gave him and belonged to that class which we are 
told can never rise because it has no money, and yet he had no money, but only 
legs and brains. (Loud applause.) But those brains have made him the leader 
of the American people (loud cheers) and of the best thought in this Republic, 
and those legs are going to trot him into the AVhite House." (Loud laughter 
and prolonged cheers.) 

THE SCHOOL BOYS OF CANTON. 

Thousands of the happy, joyous, cheering school boys of Canton, full of 
hopeful, effervescent life, m.arched from their various school buildings, in perfect 
order, to the Public Square and there formed into line, on Friday afternoon, 
October 30th, for the purpose of visiting Major McKinley. Every public 
school in the city was represented, and in the crowd were nearly two hundred 
boys from St. John's parochial school, headed by St. John's Total Abstinence 
Drum Corps. They were as enthusiastic and happy as any and enjoyed the 
•fisit as hugely. Promptly at four o'clock the line was started. There was the 
Boys' Troop, consisting of nearly a score of lads on pretty ponies. They had 
appointed acourier who galloped up to the gate with a card bearing the names 
of the speakers — just like the men. This courier was Master Willie Lowen- 
sTEix, and right well did he perform his part. Leading the procession were 
members of the Citizens' Reception Committee. Following them came a 
phaeton bearing the speakers. Masters Robert Jeannero and Haskell Koons 
aged twelpe and thirteen years respectively. The Grand Army Band came 
next, and its inspiring music set the boys wild. When quiet was obtained 
Master Haskell KooNS said: "Major McKinley, I have the honor of intjo- 
dac'ing to you Master Robert Jeannero, who will speak to you in behalf of the 
school boys." The speaker's voice was clear and strong, and he i^ronounced 
his sentences so that they were heard over the entire assemblage. He spoke 
as follows : 

"Major McKinley: It has been made my delightful duty to speak for and 
present to you the boys of the grammar and elementary schools of our good 
city. Delegations have come from near and from far to see and hear you, and you 
have spoken to them words of wisdom and courage. We boys, who hope some of 
these days to be men, thought that out of that great, generous heart there m.ight 
also come words of wisdom and of inspiration even for us. We are here, sir, 
because we desire to revere and to honor as best we may, the man, who for 
many, many years has been the ablest leader of the ablest of able men, and who 

543 



today stands for the grandest and noblest principles of one of Uie greatest par- 
ties of the Nation. (Great cheering.) AVe are here, sir, because we recognize 
in you a man worthy ever to be our model, and to assure you that your noble 
life will enter largely into our characters as we come nearer to the goal of citi- 
zenship. We are here that we may in some way catch that earnestness, that 
devotion, that spirit of doing, that has helped to bring you to your present great 
fame. We are here that we may gather strength and resoiution and courage 
from the words which you may liave for us. We are here, sir, and we all want 
you to talk to us." (Three cheers.) 

Major McKiNLEY was deeply moved by the demonstration which greeted 
him from the thousands of boys, and girls and older people and replied in words 
which showed his full appreciation of tlie call. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Young Friends: I have witnessed many interesting incidents about 
my house in the last two months, but I have seen nothing as beautiful, or more 
inspiring than the spectacle that is before me today. (Loud cheers from the 
boys.) It was very good and thoughtful of you to pay me a visit and give mo 
your assurances of sympathy and your expressions of good cheer. I like the boys. 
(Great cheering and waving of flags.) There is nothing so nice in this world as 
a boy — except a girl. (Tremendous laughter, applause and waving of flags.), 
And if the girls are not here today (a voice, 'They will be here to-moirow') 
they will be here to-morrow, as some boy has just said. (Much laughter and 
applause.) Here is a spectacle of three or four thousand boys (cries of 'Tliere 
are girls here, too') and girls, that have most of the years of their lives before 
them, with all the possibilities and opportunities which our American boys 
en joy ; with their hopes, wishes, and aspirations to become good and useful 
citizens of this glorious country. The best advice I can give to a boy is the homely 
advice that he shall be a good boy. (A voice, 'And vote for McKinley' followed 
by laughter, tremendous cheers, waving of flags and 'Hurrahs for McKinley.') 
Be a good boy at home ; a good boy in the school ; a good boy on the streets ; a 
good boy everywhere. (Renewed cheering and waving of flags.) If you will 
follow that advice, there is very little in this world that you may aspire to that 
you will not get, for it is the proud and true boast of our great country that tlie 
poor boy, as well as the more fortunate boy, has the same chance in the race of 
life. Don't let the fact that you are poor embarrass you at all ; it should only 
act as a spur to greater efforts on your part. Just have pure hearts, keep your- 
selves clean, and then a bright future is before you, and I trust and believe 
that all of you will realize in the years to come the fondest ambitions of your 
boyhood. What you want is to seek to do some useful thing better than 
anybody else. (Cries of 'That's good'.) For when you can do something better 
than anybody else, there will always be a demand for you; somebody will con- 
stantly want your services. And yo<i don't want to try to do too many things. 
Do a few things well. Now boys, I am very glad to see you. I am glad to 
know that I have the sympathy and good will of the boys and girls of Canton, 
for it counts for a great deal. I hope all of you will be able to get a good educa- 
tion, and that then when you go out in the battle of life, fighting for yourselves, 
that you will win, not only wealth and prosperity, but fame. But remember, 
that the best thing in this world to have is a good name, and that good char- 
acter will count for more and last longer than anything else you can have. I 
thank you for tlie pleasure of this call and bid you good afternoon." (One of 
the youngsters in the crowd proposed three cheers for McKint.ey, which was 
enthusiastically responded to in loud shouts and by waving of flags.) 

5M 



INVENTORS AND PATENT ATIORNEYS. 

Friday evening, October 30tli, a small party of about fifty inventors and 
patentees, of Canton, made a formal call on Major McKinley. A short time 
was spent in a social way. The Major was addressed briefly by F. W, Bond, 
Esq., who said: 

"Major McKinley: I have the honor to introduce to you the inventors 
and patentees of Canton and vicinity. I think it can be said that the country 
owes more to its inventors tlian to any other class of people. There are per- 
haps more patents taken out from Canton than from any other city in the 
United States, and the city owes its prosperity largely to its inventors. I 
think you are all well acquainted with the Major, my fellow citizens, and an 
introduction by me seems hardly necessary." 

riajor HcKinley's Response. 

^'Gentlemen: I am very much honored indeed to have the inventors in 
Canton and vicinity pay me this call. There seems to be no limit to what the 
ingenuity of man can accomplish, and it is one of the proud boasts of this 
country that we have a larger number of patents issued from the patent office 
of this Government than is issued by any other government in the world. It is 
said that the patent office is a good barometer of the progress of a country and I 
am prepared to believe that. What has been accomplished would have 
been thought impossible twenty-five years ago, or even ten years ago, and 
yet there seems to be no end to the inventive genius of man and to the wonders 
of this progressive age. I shall be glad to greet you all personally." (Applause.) 

THE LAST SATURDAY THE GREATEST. 

Saturdays were remarkable days in the notable campaign of 1896, in Canton, 
Ohio. The last Saturday before the day for the casting of the ballots to decide 
who was to rule the destinies of seventy millions of people for the succeeding 
four years, opened as did its predecessors. Or rather it opened with the programs 
of earlier Saturdays elaborated and enlarged upon. The marching of men, the 
playing of bands and the cheering of delegations began in the early morning and 
grew in volume as the day advanced. Major McKinley was called upon for a 
speech before nine o'clock and had scarcely finished that ere there was a de- 
mand for another. Then came a third audience, and a fourth and a fifth. 
Commencing at noon, people began pouring in on all railroads and organizing 
for the big demonstrations of the day, in which were intermingled the mem- 
bers of smaller parties from Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and 
other States. The largest crowd was from Youngstown, Ohio. People from 
Niles, the birthplace of Major McKinley, also came in large numbers. 
Uniformed clubs were the feature of the day. The men in these large delega- 
tions were for the most part well drilled and gaily uniformed. 

INDIANA TIN PLATE MAKERS. 

The first delegation to call on Major McKinley, Saturday, October 31st, was 
composed of the employes of the American Tin Plate Company, of Elwood, 
Indiana. There were about 350 people in the party, led by the uniformed El- 
wood McKinley Marching Club. They were introduced by James Swartman. He 
recalled the visit of Major McKinley to Elwood four years before when the tin 
plate industry was just beginning and when the plant represented by the com- 
pany consisted of but four mills. Now, he said, the plant consisted of sixteen 
mills with a capacity of 10,000 boxes of tin a week and was able to compete in 

545 



the markets with the manufacturers of the old world. This was only possible 
because of the tariff bill which bore Major McKinley's name. For that reason the 
tin workers "were most hearty and enthusiastic in their support of him." (Ap- 
plause. ) 

riajor ricKinley's Response. 

" Mr. Swartman and My Fellow Citizexs : I am much moved by the pres- 
ence about me this morning of the workingmen engaged in that great tin plute 
plant in the city of Elwood, Indiana. I have visited your city more than once. 
I have been welcomed to your factories and shops, and I recognize in this 
audience this morning, some of the men who four years ago I met in the little 
factory of which your spokesman tells. I am glad to be assured by your 
presence and by his speech, that now, as then, you stand for the promotion of 
American prosperity, the upbuilding of American industry, and the support of 
American labor. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and applause.) Better than titles, 
better than office, better than fame, is the honor that comes to any man who 
has given work and wages to labor, and cheer to American homes. (Cries of 
'That's what you've done,' and 'Hear,' 'Hear,' and great applause.) If by any 
act of mine in all the years of the past, I have furnished a day's labor to a single 
one of my countrymen that he did not have before then, that is a gi-eater honor 
than can ever come to me in the future. (Applause.) I believe, as your spokes- 
man indicates, that what we need in this country is a policy that will give pro- 
tection to the American people. As yaur most distinguished Indianian, Gen- 
eral Harrison, expressed it the other day, in his plain masterly manner: 'Home 
goods for home folks, or home labor for home citizens.' (Cries of 'Good,' 
'Good,' and 'Hear,' 'Hear,' and loud cheers.) We want by our votes, next 
Tuesday, to teach the whole world that we are a free and independent Nation, 
each individual citizen owning his own vote, and each individual citizen know- 
ing better than anybody can tell him how to cast that vote so that it will bring 
him the greatest good. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'Good,' 'Good,' and great 
cheering.) We want the whole world to understand another thing — that we 
will have no standards of civilization or manhood but our own ; and will have 
no fljig but the glorious old Stars and Stripes. (Long and continuous cheering. ) 
Then, my fellow citizens, we want the whole world to understand another 
thing — that as honest people, we propose to have honest money. (Renewed 
cheering.) We do not propose to depreciate our dollar, or the standard of our 
money, and undertake to fool ourselves that that is going to make us better off. 
(Laughter and applause.) Good money never made hard times, and poor 
money never made good times. (Prolonged cheering.) We want good times 
and the good old fashioned American wages that were established under the 
protective tariff and our present financial system. We want prosperity in every 
workshop and we want sixteen shops running where one is running now. (Loud 
peals of laughter and enthusiastic cheering.) I thank you from the bottom of 
my heart for this warm and generous call and your greetings and congratula- 
tions. It will give me very great pleasure to grasp each of you sturdy Ameri- 
can workingmen by the hand." (Three rousing cheers.) 

NATIONAL CARBON COMPANY'S EMPLOYES. 

Friends and employes of the National Carbon Company, of Cleveland, to the 
number of 500, constituted the second audience of the day. The Harmonia Band 
of Massillon, headed the delegation. The crowd was a demonstrative one and 
the cheers with which they greeted Major McKinley were loud and proloiiged. 
Major Samuel Carteb acted as spokesman. 

546 



Major McKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens: It gives me great gratification to meet the work- 
ingmen of the National Carbon Company, of Clevehmd, at my home this morn- 
ing. But it gives me greater pleasure to know that all of you are enlisted in 
tl>e ranks of the sound money army of the United States, and intend by your 
votes next Tuesday, to emphasize your opposition to a depreciated currency and 
to the repudiation of our debts, whether public or private. (Applause.) You are 
interested, in common with your fellow citizens everywhere, in having in this 
country the highest prosperity attainable. The more work there is to do in the 
United States, the more demand there will be for labor, and the better will be 
the wages paid to labor; and the less work there is in this country, the less will 
be the demand for labor and the less will be the wages paid ; for you know from 
your own experience, that when you have to hunt a job, you do not get paid as 
well as when the job hunts you (cries of 'That's right,' and loud cheers), and 
the job never hunts you in periods of business depression or when business con- 
fidence is destroyed and overthrown. I think the true policy in the United 
States is the one that causes American work to be done at home and not abroad, 
that employs American labor to make what we want, rather than liave it done 
by the labor of another nation that owes its allegiance to a foreign flag. 
(Cheers. ) I believe in a policy that protects the men first that carry the glorious 
old banner that I see in your hands today. (Loud cheers.) It is a holy banner. 
No flag represents as much as it does ; it represents liberty, it represents equality, 
it represents opportunity, it represents possibilities for American manhood 
attainable in no other land beneath the sun. (Cheers.) I am glad to know that 
the American workingmen have arrayed themselves on the side of country, 
patriotism, peace, progress, protection and prosperity. Your votes to be polled 
next Tuesday are your own. Use those ballots,— and this is the message I give 
you to take back to those whom you represent — use those ballots next Tuesday 
for what you believe, in your consciences, represents the most happiness to you, 
your families, your city, your State and your country. (Loud cheers,) As I 
understand, you are to make a day of it, and want to return to the city of Cleve- 
land to participate in the great parade which is to take place there today, so I 
will cut my remarks off at once, only thanking you for the cordiality, courtesy 
and compliment of this call." (Loud and prolonged cheers.) 

WEST VIRGINIA'S FIRST flcKINLEY CLUB. 

One of the long distance parties of the day came from New Cumberland, 
Hancock county, AVest Virginia. It was composed of two hundred people, in- 
cluding the first McKinley club organized in that State, the organization hav- 
ing been effected four months in advance of the nomination. A number of 
women, farmers, merchants and citizens in general composed the party, Rev. 
Sutherland made the introductory address for the visitors. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I am glad to welcome the citizens of Hancock 
county, West Virginia, to my home on this, the almost closing day of a mem- 
orable political campaign. It will be gratifying for all of us to feel that in the 
long months that this struggle has lasted, we have sought, in everything we 
have said, and in everything we have done, to inspire a spirit of fraternity, pat- 
riotism, good will and true and genuine Americanism. (Applause.) We have 

547 



not lowei-etl the siaiidni-d of our fathers ; wo liave |)n.sorved stuinless the ghirioua 
emblem of the free, and have appealed only to the judgments and onscienced of 
the Ameri'^an people. I am glad to meet you. The time for argument has 
passed; it has been already made; that argument you have listened to with an 
attention, earnestness, and interest that has never characterized any political 
campaign before. The American people always want to be right; they never 
seek to be wrong. (Renewed applause.) They may be misled now and then 
but when the conscience is quickened and the mind alert to the perils th.-itface 
us, the American people have never yet failed to render a just verdict for 
country, for home and for prosperity. This year the struggle is for honest 
money, with which to measure our exchanges. As an honest people, we believe 
in honest things ; as an honest people we believe in honest dollars. We believe 
that every obligation of this Government, public and private, is inviolable and 
must be sacredly kept. (Cheers.) AVe believe, too. that we are a people of 
equal citizenship ; that there are no classes, no divisions, no sections, but that we 
are all members of one great National family, having a common hope, a com- 
mon destiny, and a common flag. (Applause.) Next Tuesday you will be 
called upon in the sacred precincts of the political booth, to answer to your 
family, your conscience and your God, for the vote that you will give. I pray 
that vote may be on the side of right and justice, and if it be on the side of 
country, then you may be sure it is right. (Much applause.) I am i)repared to 
believe, as your spokesman has said, that sectionalism is almost, if not wholly, 
obliterated. The glories of the past are the glories of all, and we can stand 
beneath the folds of this grand old flag of ours, proud of the traditions and the 
history of the Republic, all erect and feeling that we have an equal interest in 
the common weal of our glorious country. I thank you and bid you good 
morning." (Three cheers.) 



A MULTITUDE FROM YOUNQSTOWN. 

To Youngstown belongs the credit of having organized and brought to Can- 
ton the largest single delegation of the campaign. The ^Mahoning county peo- 
ple came over the Cleveland, Canton and Southern Railroad, together with 
delegations from V^arren, Niles. and nearby towns, on Saturday, October 31st. 
Nine special trains, one hundred and seventeen coaches in all, were required 
for these people. The first arrived a few minutes before 10 o'clock and tlie last 
at about 12:30. A parade, in which there were over eleven tliousand people, 
immediately organized in the vicinity of tlie railway depot and under escort of 
Canton Troop paraded the street ^ Major iMcKixlev with Messrs. J. G. Butler 
and Roger Ev.\x.s, of Youngfe.,own, reviewed the parade from the little 
stand at the front of the lawn. IMessrs. Butler and Ev.\xs introduced the 
delegations. 



riajor ricKinley's Response. 

" My Fellow Citizens axd Friexbs oi- Tiii; Maihining Valley : lam more 
than grateful for and appreciate highly this splendid demonstration from my old 
friends and constituents. (Great applause.) This audience is x'emarkable, not 
only in its numbers, but in the character of those who are here assembled. It 
is not only an audience representing my old constituents, but it is an audience 
representing the home of my birth and early manhood, and it is also made up of 

518 



representative citizens of the home of my l;iter yeoi-s. Poland is here (cheers) ; 
Youngstown is here (load shouts of 'You bet,' and 'Sure,' 'Sure,' and ti*emend- 
ous cheering) ; AVai'ren is here (cheers) ; the old town of Niles is here (continu- 
ed cheering); and here to greet you, as friends of my boyhood and manhood, 
are the representative peoi)le of the city of Canton. (Great applause.) Their 
voices are mingled with yours in a chorus of pati-iotism that stirs my heart and 
gloriously sustains the great cause in which we are engaged. (Cries of 'Good,' 
'Good,' and renewed cheering.) It is like a reunion of old friends, and revives 
a multitude of sweet and tender memories ; for you come from nay birthplace, 
the home of my boyhood and early manhood, and the dear old town, where, as 
a boy, I enlisted in the service of the country, and you represent the county 
which for seven consecutive terms voted for me as Member of Congress. The 
gentleman who presides over this meeting, Mr. Butler, was a friend and 
neighbor of my boyhood, whose friendship I have enjoyed without interruption 
since. (Applause.) The gentleman who has spoken in your behalf, a worknian 
in one of your mills, Mr. Evans, I recall as one of my earliest acquaintances 
and friends, dating from my first candidacy for Congress. (Applause.) I recall 
that he and his associates in the mills and mines journeyed year after year to 
Washington, when I was their Representative, to protect against a reduction of 
the tariff in the interests of the men who toil. (Applause.) It, therefore, was 
inost appropriate that these gentlemen should have been designated to present 
me your assurances of good will and congratulation. This presence recalls 
memories of the past, for here I see many of my early and never-to-be-forgotten 
friends. It is as welcome as a benediction from those whom we love. It takes 
me back to the happy days of boyhood in Poland, the trim, neat little village 
on the yellow creek, with its tasty, white, frame dwellings, its dear old academy 
and the village store from which we got our political inspiration, and to the old 
churches, which, as boys, we attended under the careful and devoted guidance 
of our friends and guardians. (Cheers ) Looking into the faces of this great 
audience, I see some of my schoolmates, some who afterwards taught in the 
district schools, and some who enlisted, with or without the consent of anxious 
parents, in the Union Army at the breaking out of the Civil War (Cheers.) 
But how much larger is the number of those whom we recall, as having answered 
the roll call on the other shore. To those who are living, here or elsewhere, I 
offer my best wishes, and as for those who are gone, they have left us pleasant 
memories and we can only say, 'peace to their ashes.' You are here for no idle 
purpose ; you are here because you have the ballot under our glorious free 
institutions. (Great applause, waving of flags and tooting of horns.) You are 
here because next Tuesday, those ballots are to be cast (a voice, 'For McKix- 
LEY,' followed by much laughter and great cheering) for good or ill to our com- 
mon country. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and applause.) What we want in the 
United States is a restoration of the glorious prosperity of four years ago. 
(Cries of 'That's what we want,' 'You are right,' and 'Three cheers for the 
Major.') What we want (cries of 'Is McKinley') is the lost work and the lost 
wages, for the need of which we have suffered during the past three years and a 
ha;lf. They talk about free silver helping you. You have no silver mines but 
you have labor to be employed. (A voice, 'Tell us where we are going to get 
this free silver from.') You are going to get this free silver just as you get 
your money now — by working for it, and in no other way. (Tremendous cheer- 
ing and waving of flags, tooting of horns and beating of drums) and if all the 
silver of the world was coined today, it would be no nearer to you than it is 
now. (Tremendous applause, lasting several moments.) What we all want is tO' 

549 



live up to the full possibilities of American citizenship by worliing and voting 
against anything that discredits or dishonors the glorious American name, 
(Great applause.) We have so far been true to the precedents and ideals of 
the Republic founded by our fathers, and have prospered and advanced faster 
than any other government ever known to man. We will continue to thrive and 
prosper if we are true to their inspiring examples and teachings and keep close 
to the great principles of right, justice and honor. (Renewed cheers.) But, 
my friends, we will not be strong and permanently prosperous, indeed we will 
not deserve the splendor of our free institutions, if we start on tiie wild and 
perilous pilgrimage marked out for us by the Chicago platform. We can not 
disregard the rights of others ; we can not treat with contempt our constituted 
authorities; we can not overturn our courts that ujihold our civil liberties, or 
preach the doctrine of hate and passion, or of antagonism between labor and 
capital, without sooner or later impairing the fair fabric of this free and inde- 
pendent Government. (Applause.) Chaos and disorder must be discouraged 
wherever they present themselves. Let me say to my young friends here, who 
will, sooner than they realize, take into their own hands the reins of civil gov- 
ernment, that you will not have confronting you again for many years to come 
questions of such vast importance and so deeply affecting our prosperity as are 
presented for your determination in the present campaign. Not since 1861 lias 
such a test of patriotism been presented, and ag you glory in the bravery and 
valor of your fathers, I charge you do your full duty now. ((treat aiiplause.) 
It is not the mere issues of free trade and free silver, destructive and subversive 
as they are to prosperity, that should alone receive emphatic condemnation by 
your ballots next Tuesday, but the monstrous proposition that, the Uniicd 
States shall cease to be a Government by law — a land of liberty regulated by 
law. The first step is insidious and artful. Take care it does not receive sueh 
encouragement as to embolden its promoters to yet more perilous and threat- 
ening steps. (Applause.) This is not a question of candidates, but of con- 
science ; it is not a time for parties, but for patriotism ; atd the American peo- 
ple, if true to their best and highest interests, wi'l bury all tliese reactionary 
tendencies and propositions under so overwhelming a majority tliat no consid- 
erable body of men will ever have the hardihood to propose them again. Wliat 
you want is the lost job. (Cries of That, 's right,' and 'That's the trutii,' fo - 
lowed by much cheering.) What you want is to get back on the payroll. 
(Cries of 'You are right,' 'That's what we want,' and 'Protection.') What you 
want is protection, as my friend says (great ai)plause) and you know how you 
will get it. (Cries o^' 'You bet we do,' and 'By electing McKinlev,' followed by 
tremendous shouts and cheers and waving of flags.) You know what party 
gave it to you when you had it. (Cries of 'Yes, sir, you bet we do.') And you 
know you have had very little of it since that party went out of power. (Cries 
of 'Good,' 'Good,' and 'That's riglit.') Now, I am for the American worksliop. 
(Renewed clieers and tootings of horns.) I never was so proud in all my life 
of my old constituents us I have been today. (Renewed cheers.) You have 
gladdened my heart in these closing hours of the most memorable campaign 
in the history of our country. (A voice, 'Wait till Tuesday night.') We have 
but one aim— one single aim, and that is the public good. Our doctrine embraces 
every home and fireside in the land. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'That's 
good.') It is not sectional, it is not local, but it is general and universal. We 
don.'t believe in classes in the United States. (Cries of 'No, 'No,' 'xVever.') 
There is just one class under our flag, and all of us belong to it (vociferous 
shouts and waving of flags) and the poorest boy in the Mahoning Valley, thank 

550 



God, under our free institutions, can aspire to tiie confidence and honors of his 
countrymen. (Cries of 'Good,' 'Good,' and 'Hear,' 'Hear.') What a splendid 
glorious Kepublic we have ! Nothing like it under the;sun ! Everybody is the 
equal of every other person, and everybody has just as much power next 
Tuesday as any other person anywhere in the country. (Cries of 'We're going 
to use it, too. Major,' followed by continuous applause.) I remember the old 
county of Mahoning when it had less than 20,000 inhabitants. I remember that 
the city of Youngstown, when I was a boy, had but 6,000 inhabitants. It now 
has 40,000. (Cries of 'You mean 50,000. Major.' ) Mr. Butler corrects me— 50,000. 
What has given you that magnificent advancement? (Cries of 'Protection.' ) The 
argument seems to have been made. (Laughter and applause.) You do not 
need any instruction (a voice 'W^e have tried it') for you have tried it, and all 
of you have been going to the school of experience, which is the best in the 
w^orld. (Continuous applause.) The people of the city of Youngstown and 
Mahoning Valley have always given me their hearty and unselfish support, ever 
since my first election to Congress in 1876, and have shown by the exercise of their 
suffrage that tliey approved the principles, which, for the time, I had the honor to 
represent. They will remember that in two respects these campaigns have ever 
been in common. First, they have always been for sound money ; and second, they 
have always been for protection. There is no change this year, and I abjure the 
people of the once busy Mahoning Valley to stand up for them again by such 
immense majorities as will end the contention for long years to come. We 
can not get on in this country without honor, stability and excellence in our 
circulating medium and financial methods. W^e can not get on in this country 
unless we do our own worlc at home and send none of it abroad, so long as there 
is a single unemployed American citizen who is willing to work. The progress 
which you have made has been under the protective system, and I under- 
take to say that no cause has contributed so much to produce this result and to 
stimulate our factories and workshops as such legislation constantly has. 
In tlie same period I have described, Youngstown made considerable strides 
in manufactures, while her mines kept pace with the wonderful progress. She has 
today more machine shops, furnaces and mines, than she ever had before, with 
I believe, in 1890, nearly i('6,000,000 of capital invested in industries with a 
product of $13,000,000. Let but the wand of prosperity touch these great indus- 
tries, and the Mahoning Valley will prosper as never before, a result to which you 
by your ballots next Tuesday can contribute. (Applause.) Four years ago 
Youngstown was rejoicing in better wages, better markets and better prices 
than ever before, and then, as you will remember, the people of the country 
were strangely derelict in their duty and voted a change in our economic laws. 
They believed the claims of our political opponents, that protection made no 
difference to them anyway. They ran away from their unprecedented prosper- 
ity and joined the ghost dance for the markets of the world. (Laughter and 
applause.) They have had some experience since then^ and they do not think 
as they thought in 1892. If you want protection ; if you prefer good money to 
cheap money ; if you prefer law and order to disquiet and turbulence ; if you 
prefer good government to irresponsible authority and party caucus ; if you 
prefer free and equal citizenship — then vote for the party which best represents 
your mature and well-considered judgment. (Loud applause.) Let there be no 
reproaches cast against the old Mahoning Valley. Let it now, as in every great 
crisis, be distinguished for its sturdy patriots like Tod, AVhittlesey, Garfield, 
Wade, and Giddixcis, who represented you with honor and reflected honor 
on you in turn by their eminent services in Congress. May you vote in the true 

551 



American spirit of the Union, foi-evc'i- and forever, as one in heart, hopi^ and 
destiny, recognizing but one flag from sea to sea, and rejecting every olher_ 
(Long and enthusiastic cheering.) I thank you for this call. It has warmed 
my heart ; it has done the cause for which I stand, great honor. This is the con- 
clusion, almost, of the campaign, and I want to say, that in the three montlis I 
have been speaking to the masses of my countrymen from every State in the 
Union (cries of 'Bully for you. Major') I have endeavored to utter only woi-dsof 
patriotism and good will, (cries of 'That's what you have,' and 'That's right') of 
fraternity and good fellowship. (Renewed cries of 'That's what you have,' 
and 'You are right,' followed by prolonged cheering and Waving of flags and 
tooting of horns.) And now. my fellow citizens, thanking you for this magniii- 
cent ovation (cries of 'Go ahead,' 'Go ahead') and bidding you follow the teach- 
ings, not only of your own experience, but the teachings of tlie fatiiers of the 
Republic, I would suggest that you avoid fr(>e silver as you would avoid free 
trade. (Loud shouts of 'We will do it,' followed by tremeir is ai)i)lause.) Let 
us teach the whole world that we are not a Nation of repudiators, (great applause) 
and that we iiropose to pay our debts, i)ublic and private, in the best currency 
known to the civilized world. (Cries of 'That's right,' and 'Good,' 'Good,' and 
great cheering.) But, my friends, I must stop, and I can only say I wish you 
all good bye and a return of that prosperity, and that confidence in business 
which will bring cheer to every American home and courage to every American 
heart." (Tremendous cheering and waving of hats and flags.) 

THE LADIES' HcKINLEY CLUB OF CANTON. 

The first public appearance of the Women's McKinley Club, on Saturday, 
October 31st, so recently organized, was a most creditable one, and its j)ropor- 
tions agreeably surprised as well as gratified the thousands of people who wit- 
nessed the splendid parade. Fully 1,500 women of Canton were in line, and 
theii- cheering for McKisley was taken up on all sides and echoed and re-echoed 
from one end of the procession to the other. Each woman carried a National 
flag and waved it gracefully. The club was introduced by Mrs. M. K. H.\kt- 
ZELL, who said: 

"Major McKinley: It is my pleasant duty to announce to you the pres- 
ence of the ladies of Canton who have come to make known their admiration 
for you as a man and a citizen, and to evince their strong sympathj witli the 
principles which you represent. You see before you the members of the Wom- 
en's McKinley Club, of Canton. I venture one word for our home association. 
Its large membership comprises women of all sects and of all the benevolent 
and charitable and humane organizations of the city. With sujireme pride and 
pleasure we have seen the unanimity with which all Americans have accorded 
to you that character for purity of life and goodness of purpose. Which you 
have so richly merited. Seeing how justly you were esteemed in ail these 
nobler aspects of right living that are dearest to the hearts of the wives and 
mothers of our land, we have, until this last hour of the great contest, given 
way to others. We come now to bear this testimony. Better than others, we 
of Canton, have known you from youth up. AVe have seen you in prosperity 
and in adversity. We know your race and kindred. . We have been at your 
side when you were bowed down in sorrow. Through all these life experiences 
you have— we say it with exultation— you have been the consistent friend of 
^ virtue and all that goes to malve the home life pure and exalted. You have 
been the helper of those who needed help. You have set a noble example to all 

552 



the youth of America by your persistent struggle with, and triumph over every 
obstacle ; to all citizens of America by the exalted patriotism; to all husbands 
and sons by your truth, purity and simplicity and devotion to all the old fash- 
ioned, homely and domestic virtues that lie at the foundation of home and 
country. Tlie women of the McKinley Club — the mothers, wives and daughters 
of Canton, give to their sisters greetings, and this assurance that in AVilliam 
McKinley are enthroned and embodied the dearest wishes and aspirations that 
can find place in the heart of a true lover of home and country." 



Major McKinley's Response. 

" I\Irs. Hartzell and My Friends: I wish 1 was able to make a suitable 
and worthy response to your most gracious message delivered to me by Mrs. 
Haktzell. The chief regret witli me today is that J^Irs. ^IcKinlev is not able 
to share with me this great honor, and to witness this matchless scene. 
(Applause.) We have had nothing like it in the whole course of this most 
interesting campaign, and I assure you that I appreciate it more than I can find 
words to express. To have the assurance of the sympathy, the good will, aye. 
more, the confidence of the good women of Canton, who have known me all my 
life, is an honor which I appreciate more than any other honor that could come to 
me. (Loud cheers and waving of Hags. ) I can not forbear on this occasion to say 
not only to the women but to my neighbors and friends of Canton, generally, 
of all political parties, creeds and beliefs, that the splendid manner in wliich 
you liave all behaved toward me, and to the great cause which I represent, fills me 
with gratitude that I can never, never forget. (Loud cheers.) I thank you for this 
call, and I can only say that so long as the women of the country, who preside 
over American homes, keep those homes pure and spotless, no great harm can 
ever come to this great Republic. (Loud cheers and waving of Rags.) I want 
to ex])ress to the girls of Canton, that make such an attractive i)art of this 
beautiful picture, that I appreciate their coming liere today. They really 
ought to have come with tlie boys last night, (laughter) but I su])pose the only 
reason they did not come was that they were not invited. (Renewed laughter.) 
However, inasmuch as you did not come yesterday, I am so glad you have come 
today, and I congratulate you upon having these splendid mothers and sisters 
as your chaperones. (Cheers.) I am glad to see you waving that glorious old 
fiag in your hands today, (cries of 'Let it wave,' followed by vigorous waving of 
Mags) the flag that represents the highest aims and aspirations of the American 
people, and that has been borne in every battle, in which this Republic has been 
engaged, from the days of the Revolution until now, and has never been sur- 
rendered to any Nation beneath the sun. (Loud clieers.) I can only thank you 
most heartily and bid you all good bye." (Great cheering.) 

Following the reception to the Ladies' Club of Canton a short address was 
made in reply to greetings by the Ladies' McKinley Club of Youngstown. 

Major ricKinley's Response. 

" I am very glad, ladies, t(| greet at my home the women of the city of 
Youngstown. You are equally interested this year with the men of the country 
in the rightful settlement of the great public questions that are presented to 
us. I have been glad to note, throughout the entire progress of this campaign, 
the deep solicitude which the good women of the country have had in it. It is 

553 



a good omen when our mothers, sisters, and wives are enlisted in any cause and 
we may be assured and can safely rely upon it, that a cause which has the support 
of the women is worthy of our commendation and approval. I am glad to meet 
you all at my home. It is a source of sincere regret to Mrs. McKixley that she 
has been unable, on account of illness, to meet you personally. I wish you 
a safe return to your homes." (Great applause.) 

KENTON, OHIO, RAILROADERS. 

Immediately following the dispersing of the Youngstown Women's McKin- 
ley Club, Major McKinley was called to the rear porch of his residence. Here 
had gathered a hundred or more of members of the Railroad Men's McKinley 
Club, of Kenton, Hardin county, to be addressed by him. The delegation was 
Introduced by Mr. J. B. Pumphrey. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"My Fellow Citizens: I appreciate highly this call from the Eailroad 
Men's Sound Money Club, of Kenton. I have been glad to observe in the course 
of this campaign that the employes of the railroad companies are largely on the 
side of the Republican Party, and they are so because they believe the Repub- 
lican Party, better than any other party this year, represents their highest and 
best interests and the welfare of our common country. Voters can not be moved 
by a higher consideration than this— 'What is best for home, for the commu- 
nity, for the State, and for the country?' When you have answered that question 
by your ballots next Tuesday, you will have discharged, in the most honorable 
manner, the highest privileges of American citizenship. I feel the greatest 
gratification that the cause for which I am this year designated to stand, has 
the full encouragement and support of the railroad organizations of the coun- 
try. It will give me pleasure to gi-eet each of you personally." (Applause.) 

PATRIOTIC AMERICAN H0ME5. 

• 

Stark county sent another delegation to greet Major McKinley, Saturday, 
October 31st. It came from Waynesburg and Sandy township, and was in- 
troduced by Dr. G. A. Shane. 

Major McKinley's Response. 

"Dr. Shane and My Fellow Citizens: That which touches me more deep- 
ly than anything else is the repeated manifestations of confidence on the part 
of my old and early friends. No community in Stark county has ever been 
more loyally devoted to a man or a cause than the village of Waynesburg and old 
Sandy township. (Applause.) In all my political experience, covering now 
nearly a quarter of a century, almost annually I have visited your village and 
township, and on every occasion it has seemed to me you have given a warmer 
and heartier greeting than before To have you come here, almost at the close 
of a most remarkable campaign, to give assurances of your continued fidelity 
and support, touches me more deeply than I can express. The hope of this coun- 
try is in the patriotic American homes, such as from which you come, and no 
danger can ever come to this Republic, or to any of its valued interests, or to 

554 



the liberty which we enjoy, so long as the American home is kept pure, and there 
go out from it upright young men and women to sustain the great trusts that in 
a few years must be imposed upon them. (Continued cheering.) I thank you 
for this call, I thank you that you have come on this glorious day when the 
glorious banner of. the free waves from every home and hill top of the land, and 
from every farm and fireside of our common country. Glorious old banner it is I 
So long as we carry it in our hands, and have what it typifies in our hearts, the 
Republic and our splendid free institutions will be forever secure. I thank you 
and bid you good day." (Three cheers for Major McKinley.) 



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